Written In Reverse
by eosdawnaurora
Summary: AU; Age-swap. Kakashi is on a sensitive mission to Kumogakure with Sakura, his former sensei, whom he has fallen for. Unfortunately, she's unable to get around his age, that he's her student and that she's in love with someone else. DaruSaku, KakaSaku
1. Don't You Ever

A/N: This is an age-swap AU, Sakura is Team 7's sensei, Kakashi is her student. I've played with the manga canon a bit here and there as necessary - also Naruto is Naruko (female) in this, though doesn't get a speaking role. Naruto belongs to Kishimoto.

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Written In Reverse

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Footsore and exhausted, Kakashi glanced back at the two ANBU running like swift pack dogs with him. The route for their current mission had them passing through Hot Springs Country. The air was thick and warm here, with a metallic scent, the ground soft and overgrown with huge ferns and cloud-scraping evergreens. He didn't dislike it, but the forests of Fire Country were to be preferred.

With two good days worth of travel in front of them to the Lightning Country, and one long day behind them since they'd set out from Konoha, he knew everyone had to be near their limit for non-stop travel over the course of one day. Their team leader, Sakura, who was a red, black and pink streak well ahead of them, was the only one in their group not wearing a mask or in ANBU garb. She also continued setting a brutal pace. He vaguely wondered if she was angry about something. He supposed Tsunade had dropped this mission on her rather out of nowhere.

Well that, and things between them had been a bit awkward since that incident three months ago. Kakashi supposed there were a lot of things that could happen between two people traveling together, occasionally sheltering for the night in a small tent. It really wasn't all that erotic, but he blushed just thinking about waking up with her arm wrapped around him, with her hand under his shirt. As many times as Sakura had already apologized, it seemed like every time she saw him she wanted to apologize again.

Behind him, misjudging the footing in the darkness, Yamato stumbled over a boulder but recovered before either he or Sai could stop to help. Kakashi decided it was time to break the informal silence and called out ahead. "Sakura-sensei, we passed a good campsite just a few minutes ago. Can we stop?"

Sakura didn't look back at him, and her pace didn't falter. "One more hour and we'll be in Frost Country," she said, her voice flat and brooking no argument.

A little over an hour later, they were at the base of a coastal mountain, the last in a long string of jagged peaks, which bore a massive, groaning, crackling glacier; large chunks of ice broke off of it and crashed into the water below with startling frequency. From above, the waxing moon gave the water and ice an ethereal quality and the combined view of sharp mountains, cold, ice-specked sea and dark sky it took his breath away. Kakashi had seen few signs of habitation on land, but out on the water in the distance, he could see the lights glimmering on a pair of fishing boats.

Yamato used his Four-Pillars House jutsu on a sparsely vegetated, ice-smoothed ridge, and once inside they made a dinner of dry rations. Sai went and sat outside the front door and doodled moonlit crags, while munching on that flavorless granola only former Root members seemed to like. Yamato crawled into his bedroll without eating, since he had second watch and was visibly exhausted. Kakashi watched as Sakura set her things in the middle of the main room while she studiously ignored them all. She pulled out a lantern from her supply scroll then sorted through her hip pack for something to eat. He couldn't manage to catch her eye, and her avoidance made the unfurnished hollowness of their temporary shelter feel deeper.

Kakashi unstrapped his katana and unbuckled his armor, stacking it neatly, unknotted his porcelain wolf mask, set it aside leaving the black mask underneath up and laid back on top of his bedroll. He looked over at Sakura's things set out near his again, and wondered if she'd manage to complete the entire mission without speaking directly to anyone on the team. If that was her intent she was making a good start of it.

There were a number of things they could communicate without speaking, though. Any good team was like that, but Sakura was usually the first to talk and the last to hide how she was feeling. That she'd been so terse since they'd left, made him unhappy and likely had Yamato on edge as well; their whole team was used to her sharing everything she thought about things, especially where they were going and what they'd be doing there.

As he drifted off, his thoughts took him back to when he'd first met her, a little over six years ago. He was a rather grim twelve-year-old on the verge of taking the Chuunin exams, with those two bickering idiots, Naruko and Sasuke on his team and no clue just how badly he needed people, friends, and someone he could trust besides his dogs. It all seemed like such a long time ago.

For all that he'd suffered before losing his father, losing his eye. Kakashi knew Sakura had gone through things just as bad if not worse. Yet, somehow, her heart was not hardened to the world. Only months after she had met him, she'd given Kakashi the only thing she had left of one of her most precious friends. An eye from a cursed family, from a dead friend or lover or whatever that guy had been to her. Uchiha Obito's eye was a dubious gift, but he'd already made quite a reputation with it. Kakashi seldom uncovered it outside of combat when Sakura was near, afraid of an awkward look or a sad smile that wasn't directed at him.

He knew he hadn't been asleep long when he woke to the sound of soft, almost imperceptible footsteps moving across the hard floorboards of the cabin. He turned his head to see Sakura disappear out the door.

"Is it just me, or is Sakura-taicho acting odd?" Yamato said in a half-whisper across from him, though he didn't sit up.

Kakashi sighed. "How long has it been since she's been to the Lightning Country, do you think? That might have something to do with it." If her behavior was nothing to do with him, there were plenty of other things it might be. It was a bit arrogant of him to assume she was angry Tsunade put them on a team together again, not knowing what had occurred.

"Not for a couple of years," Yamato said, running his hand back over his spiky hair, which was still damp with sweat. He'd known and worked with Sakura far longer than Kakashi, and Kakashi suspected he held a particular regard for her that she had never acknowledged nor returned. "She doesn't talk about it."

_Not to you_, Kakashi gloated to himself, though usually she only spoke of the war to him in the context of their work. "Yeah, that's what I thought."

Much of the fight against Uchiha Madara and his allies had happened in the Lightning Country, leaving behind mass graves, memorials and blasted, empty plains littered with rusty kunai. There were plenty of people in the village who still woke up every night in a cold sweat, or went quiet and stared into the distance at random intervals, their mind going somewhere impenetrable and full of terror. Kakashi got around his worst memories by drowning them in escapist literature. Mainly pornography, but it was good porn – the sort with a plot. One of the books, _Icha Icha Paradise_ was the best birthday gift Naruko had ever given him. He was tempted to pull the book out right now.

"Tsunade might have given her a side job, too. It wouldn't be the first time. S-rank missions are always more complicated," Yamato said, between yawns.

"We're supposed to be her escort, I doubt she'd neglect to mention that."

With Yamato's laugh, Kakashi sat back up and reached for the nearest sharp object, cutting his thumb on a shuriken in his hip pouch. Sending Pakkun after her might not do much to resolve his unease, but he did the seals anyway and summoned the pug nin-ken.

Pakkun appeared in a puff of smoke, and his watery, round eyes were bleary and heavy like he'd been sleeping. "I hope this is important," he said, yawning and stretching out his back legs.

Kakashi rolled his eye. "It is to me. Sorry if you were asleep. Go find Sakura-sensei, and come back before she does. Don't let her see you."

"Should you be spying on her?" Pakkun admonished.

"Pakkun."

"I'm going," he said, waving his curly-tailed rear at Kakashi.

As they waited for the pug to return, Yamato passed out, snoring through the back of his throat and making little wheezing sounds. If he were trying to sleep, Kakashi would probably have kicked him in the side by now, senpai or not. It wasn't long before Pakkun returned, his claws clacking against the wood as he scurried, with the scent of wet grass and ice following him in. Kakashi sat up, hunched over his crossed legs, waiting for the report.

"She went down to the shoreline. There was a white-haired guy with no insignias on his clothes standing in the water waiting. Then they traded scrolls. He had those shark teeth Water Country people sometimes have."

The man he described sounded familiar. "Damn it, why would she-"

Pakkun lifted his paw in a sort of shrug. "Sai followed her with a bunshin, too. I think she knows you guys pretty well. She didn't even try to hide her tracks. I don't think Sakura-san felt threatened."

"She should have asked one of us to come along." He knew now why she wanted to get here so badly, but not why it was a secret. Or maybe it wasn't a secret and this was just more of her acting strange.

"It was a pretty straightforward exchange. The guy grinned and left waving, as soon as he had what he wanted." Pakkun chuckled.

"Hmmm. I think Sasuke used to run with a someone matching that description. The only thing he was interested in were the swords of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist though." Trading secrets for a sword was a possibility, since he was still a missing-nin, and as a free agent could take on certain jobs that shinobi from the Hidden Villages could not without breaking certain treaties.

"Well I can't tell you what was in the scrolls, you'll have to ask her that. Need me for anything else Kakashi-san? I'm pretty sleepy."

Kakashi sensed Sakura approaching the cabin and he slipped into his bedroll. "No, you can go," he said, laying back, debating whether to try tonight or corner her in the morning and attempt to wheedle information out of her then; exhaustion chose for him.

The shuffle of feet between Yamato getting up and Sai laying down to sleep, woke Kakashi again. He blinked his right eye - holding the left closed was second-nature. Across from him Sakura was awake, sprawled on top of her bedroll and reading. The lantern light wasn't strong but it was steady and painted their surroundings a warm amber color. He blinked again and tugged his mask back up over his nose, hiding his frown.

Sakura watched him as he came over to sit next to her, lowering the scroll. Her eyebrow rose when he didn't say anything, just stared at her, glancing down at her reading and then back up to her face.

"Is two hours enough rest? You seemed pretty tired," she said.

"It's enough. Usually you need more sleep than I do. I can take your watch," he said, keeping his voice low though he knew Sai could hear him perfectly well if he wanted to listen.

Her expression shifted from tolerant, to annoyed. "Perhaps I should phrase this differently. Go back to sleep, Kakashi."

"Not until you tell me what you were doing with Hozuki Suigetsu out on the shore," he said, crossing his arms, smug but not without a bit of anger behind his voice.

"Brat. It's nothing that will cause you any problems, if anything it will help us. This mission is primarily diplomatic – and diplomacy is easier when you have a grip on the political situation you are jumping into," she explained, as if he were a rookie on his first trip outside of the Fire Country.

"There are many less expensive ways of getting that sort of information than from a dangerous missing-nin like that guy. Who the hell set up the drop?" he asked, genuinely curious. There were only a few people in Konoha that he knew of close enough to Suigetsu to even be able to contact him.

"You aren't going to let this go, are you?"

"Underneath the underneath, Sakura-sensei. You're the one who taught me that. I'm doing my job," he said, matching her annoyed glare.

She looked at him for a moment and reached up and ruffled his hair, smiling at him fondly. "Why couldn't you have been born ten years earlier?" she laughed. Sakura rolled up the scroll in front of her, stowing it in one of her pouches, and drew out a different one which was still sealed.

"What's that supposed to mean?" There was really only one thing it could mean in conjunction with that affectionate smile. His heart thudded in his chest, as thoughts and feelings he kept well tamped down inside, surged forward and formed a single, unspeakable thought:

_I want you._

"I'm just teasing," she said.

_No you're not._ Kakashi said nothing, vaguely regretting the moment he'd decided to stay awake. If her intention was to completely throw his mind off the topic of interest and onto a different track though, she'd succeeded.

Sakura continued to hold his gaze, paying no mind to his flustered expression as she held out the sealed scroll to him. "If you're going to be up, you might as well be useful. This is the information the independent agent acquired for us. It's all in code of course, so if you don't mind..."

He took it from her hand, making a face at the phrase 'independent agent'. "Do you want me to copy it out or memorize it?" At least he had something to think about now besides how much he wanted to fuck his former teacher, hard on the floor of a cabin in the middle of nowhere - and in full view of their comrades. He did the hand seals for a high-level unsealing jutsu over the small scroll, and as the seal evaporated, the edge of the silk-wrapped rice paper flopped loose.

"You can read it to me once you have it worked out, then destroy it," she said. "I'll take a nap in the meantime. Like you suggested." Sakura grinned. She laid her head on her folded arms and closed her eyes, her long pink hair sliding off of her shoulders and onto the floor - begging to be stroked or caught up in his hands as he–

Kakashi bit his lip and forced himself to look back down at the task he'd been assigned; it took him the better part of an hour to complete. When he was done, he sat quiet and thoughtful, watching Sakura sleep and wondering how much she already knew about what he'd just read. Soon, Yamato would be back from walking the perimeter, and it would be his turn to stalk around in the cold, guarding their camp.

For a moment he debated on how to rouse his troublesome team leader. He was not above a well-played prank, particularly where Naruko was concerned, but what he wanted more than anything was to beguile Sakura the way she did him. Doing so might only make their relationship more awkward, but it wouldn't be the first time he jumped into something head first.

"Sakura," he whispered, close to her ear, dropping her title if only to try out not saying it. He pulled his mask down far enough to kiss her on the neck, and whispered again, "Sakura, wake up." She caught him by the collar before he could move away, and pulled him down.

When Yamato returned, neither Kakashi nor Sakura heard him enter. Caught up in Sakura, her smell, her lips on his as she kissed him, her body pressing against his as she pinned him against the floor; Kakashi doubted he'd have felt a knife pierce his flesh he was so high on her.

"Uh... maybe I should go back outside." Yamato said, turning on his heel, while they froze in place in embarrassment. Kakashi pushed up on his elbows, Sakura still leaning on his chest, and looked over to see Sai still asleep. He really wasn't kidding when he said he didn't care about interpersonal relationships. It was all academic to Sai.

Sakura glanced at the door, chewing at her lower lip, her expression unreadable. "We shouldn't have done that," she said moving away from him, to sit cross-legged on her bedroll. She didn't sound like she regretted it. "You have the decoded message for me, correct?"

"Whenever you're ready," Kakashi replied, watching Yamato return, expecting him to be glaring at them in disapproval. His face was as smooth and as peaceful as the cat mask he wore as an ANBU, however. Kakashi got the subtle hint that they should all remember how to act like professionals before they reached Kumo, if they wanted this mission to be successful. He took this to heart as he started reciting from memory the captured correspondence from a group strongly suspected in the recent murder of the Lightning Country's Daimiyo.

Hours later, having claimed Sakura's shift, Kakashi got to see the sun rise, blinding light washing over the mountain and the rivers of ice upon it, tinted in pink and yellow and palest blue. Every now and then he caught himself touching the part of his mask over his mouth, his lips still tingling from that reckless moment. He deeply hoped he would find a way to garner a repeat.


	2. Stay, Don't Go

_A/N: I just want to mention that this got a lot longer than I expected it to (because I have a newfound love for Kumogakure and it's residents, yay Bee, Raikage and Darui. Also, it doesn't have a lot of Kaka/Saku in it – but if you hang around for the next chapter, um, yeah, that one will._

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Stay, Don't Go

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Sunset wasn't far off and Sakura was hoping to outrun it; the gates of Kumogakure were getting closer at an alarming pace. She raced towards them like her fondest desire lay beyond. Nothing could be further from the truth. This could not be happening; she could not possibly be in the last place in the world she ever wanted to return to, traveling with the one person in the world she should never be on a mission with ever again, while fairly certain that said mission was going to be a long, painful, convoluted affair.

Affair – that was not a word she needed to be using. The gods had to be on the golden-veined, marble floors of their cloud palaces, laughing uproariously at her plight.

Though she knew her opinion mattered little to the Fire Daimyou, Sakura thought that he was hugely overreacting to what had happened to his fellow leader in the Lightning Country. The Lightning folk could handle this themselves – the Raikage wasn't going to want them in his way she was certain – regardless of what their Interim Daimyou requested - and her time would be better spent protecting their own borders.

She had gained proof that this was not just an internal issue, but she was confident that what happened here couldn't happen in the Fire Country – not now that they were on the alert. Most irksome of all, Sakura couldn't even begin counting the days till the damned thing would be over, because she had to stay in this craggy, storm-ridden, moss-covered hellhole as counsel to the Raikage, until he dismissed her and her team.

The Raikage could give her a headache just by being in the same room – and before the war she'd thought Tsunade was the only one in the world with that particular quality. She wondered what it was about being a village head that made a person yell so much. The Raikage, as his title suggested, was very like a walking thunderstorm.

Most of all, she dreaded running into his subordinate and right hand, Darui.

She would, too; even if he didn't come looking for her, he was one of the top shinobi here, it was unavoidable that they'd end up in the same room together at some point. She'd try not to look at that handsome face, but once she did, she knew that dangerous ball of emotions she'd buried in the back of her heart would rise to the surface without beckoning.

It was astonishing how much he and Kakashi had in common when she thought about it – the shock of unruly pale hair; the incredible competence as a shinobi; the fact that they both possessed the ability to override all her rational thinking with just a glance. Similarly, it was just as impossible for her to have a deeper relationship with either one of them. Kakashi was much, much too young for her, and Darui was just as committed to the Raikage as she remained to the Hokage.

She didn't need any more complications or to have another ill-timed moment of weakness. Earlier, as they broke camp she was very tempted to send Kakashi back home and ask for a replacement. Unfortunately, that would require also giving an explanation. Perhaps having two such strong influences on her heart in the same vicinity might serve to cancel each other out - and she could get on with her life.

Sakura fought to keep her spine straight and her face cool, trying to prove that her self-control was not, in fact, in shambles. She was unperturbed, merely a mouthpiece, not a person with wants and needs; merely a polite, demure mask - cold as ice, hard as diamond. This would be just like she was visiting her neighbor to borrow a half-cup of cooking oil and remind them to have their retaining wall fixed.

It wasn't the same at all though, and she groaned inwardly.

The highest tower, built into the highest mountain and crowning the Raikage's residence, came into full view on the reddening horizon, and still she rushed towards it.

If she'd chosen a different path in life, she could be doing something so much more respectable and - some might say - more worthy of her gender and base talents, like healing. Shizune was doing well enough as the senior medic at Konoha's hospital though, and if Sakura ever lost her taste for combat, plenty of excitement was waiting for her back in the ER. Here, however, she'd be helping an allied country to track down dangerous criminals. The shinobi's path was what she wanted, and this was where it had taken her.

Raising her arm, Sakura motioned for the others behind her to stop, and they gathered behind a copse of flowering magnolia trees. The semi-circle of masked faces before her displayed three sets of sharp, fervent eyes, and their admiration and faith in her warmed her to the core.

"This is probably the last time we'll get to talk without being monitored by the Kumo sensor corps. The three of you are to be my eyes and ears, while I act as Tsunade's proxy here. While you may use any skill at your disposal to observe and record, under no circumstances are any of you to engage in combat in this village, this country, if it is avoidable. Until further notice we are merely gathering information. Your identities will be known only to the Raikage and I, so please remain discreet and do not reveal your faces except in private.

"How much you will officially be permitted to do will be established once we've met with the leadership. Your assignments will be given then. If we're lucky the Raikage will just thank us for responding to the central government's aid request, and send us all back home." This was her most desired outcome, but once she told Ei-sama what they'd discovered, Sakura knew it was unlikely.

"May I ask something, taicho?" Kakashi's hands were at his sides, feeling for pockets that weren't there. He must have gotten used to the standard uniform he'd been issued during and after the war.

"Go ahead," she said, tilting her head a little to the side, hoping his query was nothing too obnoxious. He had a tendency of thinking of anything she forgot to mention. Usually something important.

"If trouble were to happen at home, would we be able to leave quickly?" he asked.

Sakura pursed her lips, knowing what he was getting at. "A number of the finest shinobi our village has to offer are still with Tsunade as well as the Daimyou. She has plenty of good eggs in her tactical basket, Kakashi. But, if something does happen at home like what happened here, I expect we will return immediately. Tsunade wouldn't have let us go unless she thought we were the best people for this particular job."

"In other words the Godaime thinks we'll be able to resolve things quickly. Right, Sakura-taicho?" Yamato said.

She nodded, and turned on her heel, "Let's go!"

* * *

Once they were within a mile of Kumogakure, Sakura sensed the first patrol. They slipped past unseen as far as she could tell, avoiding each pair of sentries, not disturbing a single rock pigeon to flight or kicking up any dust. Their goal was the massive wooden main gate, which was covered in electrified mesh as well as set into an eight-foot thick, forty-foot high wall, and nestled between two of the many tall, conical crags that the village was built within and around. When it finally stood before her, Sakura felt certain she should have balked harder at Tsunade about the roster of her team.

Above them, two heavily-muscled, male shinobi with pale, slicked back hair, and tattooed shoulders stared down from either side of the gate. They looked more than a bit surprised to see the four of them standing there with little to no advance warning that they were in the vicinity.

"Hey!" Sakura said, as she waved up at the pair and pulled an envelope from inside her flak vest and held it out in front of her. "I'm Haruno Sakura, from Konoha. We brought this for the Raikage, from the Hokage's own hand," she said as she waved the envelope like a small flag.

"Sakura-shushou! We were expecting you!" called down the one on the right. He bore a big blocky tattoo of the symbol for "forge" on his right shoulder and had the dark complexion that was common in the Lightning Country. He and his companion wore the standard Kumokagure uniform, with a breastplate of white armor that covered the torso and wrapped over the left shoulder, protecting the heart. "You probably don't remember me, but I was in Third Division under you, ma'am," he said, grinning.

She vaguely remembered a kid who resembled this man – then not much older than Kakashi, but who had some very interesting fire techniques. "Takai-san! You look like you've gotten a lot taller. Is that Renka-san up there? It seems like you're both doing well." The other man waved down at them and then disappeared, jumping down to the other side.

"Yup. Hold on while Renka calls for your escort and opens the gate."

Besides being very proud and remaining militant even after the post-war disarmament, the people of Kumogakure were very cautious. Even though they knew she was here to help, their wariness, which had protected them for nearly a century, did not waver. Considering the orders she'd been given she knew that they were entirely correct to be so wary. She heard the mechanism that ran the pulleys for the gate groan and the hinges squeal, a sound that pierced her eardrums, and slowly the gate lifted open.

Waiting beyond, in the widening strip of sunlight before them, was a group of four shinobi. One of them she recognized instantly. He was a very big man for one thing, and dressed similarly to when they last met, wearing sunglasses without temples, no shirt and a thick white scarf at his neck, along with the standard Kumo armor and more blades on his back than she would usually consider to be reasonable for one person to carry.

"Bee-san!"

He was grinning, and gestured at her with his hands. "Look what blew in from Konoha. Girl so fine I ought ta know ya," he rhymed.

Sakura smirked back, not sure if she liked the inflection that he gave the word 'know', or if she liked being called a girl. She managed to keep her eyebrow from twitching, in any case. "Nice introduction, though I'm certainly more flattered that you came to greet us yourself," she said, though she knew it more closely resembled relief. The other three with him were much younger than he, and she guessed that Kumogakure's Killer Bee was training up a new team.

"No prob, Sakura-san, nothing about it odd. Looking forward to some real action with my squad. There's been plenty of days for me to work on my rhymes, but damn I just want to bust heads sometimes. Hold on, I like that-" he said, and produced a pencil and notebook, scribbling furiously in it. "Where's Naruko?" he asked, not looking up at the masked faces behind her.

She glanced over her shoulder. "Sorry to disappoint you, but she's on another assignment right now. I'll be sure to tell her you asked after her though."

"And tell her to write me back about that invitation. We need to train real soon at Turtle Island for vacation. Oh, and speaking of an apology, someone here needs one, name starts with a D."

Her stomach lurched, her hopes dashed that everything that had happened two years ago, had been forgotten. Why couldn't it have been tactfully ignored and dismissed as an ill-considered part of the post-war euphoria. "I don't know what you're talking about. Was that supposed to rhyme?" she said, unable to conceal the awkwardness of trying to dodge further discussion of the topic, while the blood drained from her face.

Bee shook his head, adjusting the strap on one of his gauntlets. "Damn it, that's some cold shit. No, I think honey you do, but I won't embarrass you more in front of your crew. Fuu- I'm on fire today, oh yeah! Follow me!" he crowed, posing with his fists up in the air, his fingers up like two sets of horns. Then he bounded off, in a manner that suggested someone ten times lighter and smaller, towards one of several carved, hollowed and terraced mountains. They shadowed him, leaping between the lofty, near vertical peaks to the huge, bulbous, blue-and-gold-painted structure that comprised the visible portion of the Raikage's massive tower.

"No wearing masks on the inside, unless you want my brother to tan your hide," Bee said, as they arrived in front of the massive iron-studded doors, which bore painted carvings of stylized lions and wolves wrapped in jagged lightning bolts and roiling clouds.

Sakura nodded. "My escort can wait out here – if you think your friends can manage not to pick a fight with them," she said, side-eying his team who all looked like they enjoyed a good brawl.

"No worries," he laughed, and patted her shoulder, then pointed at his companions. "Sabi and Hikaru, keep an eye on these sneaky motherfuckers," he said to a pair of blonde, spiky-haired boys who looked like twins. To the third, a shorter boy with dark hair and twin swords on his back, "En, you go find the steward and get them rooms that ain't for suckers. Sparring, maybe later, we'll have plenty of time for that. If somebody's coming on strong they'll get tit for tat."

Sakura nodded, and caught the eyes of each of the men in her squad. "Don't leave the terrace. Stand at ease and don't make trouble. I'll be back as soon as I can."

One of the guards held the door open for them, and Bee strode into the dim hall beyond ahead of her. She followed, blinking, trying not to stare at the unfamiliar surroundings. She'd never actually been inside the tower, never having cause to be invited. The end of the war saw her stuck in the Kumogakure hospital for almost a month after the dust settled. Chakra exhaustion was a decidedly unpleasant thing to experience, and much worse when one was already suffering from wounds that should have killed her.

_Thank the gods for Naruko._ Without her, Sakura knew she would have been dead ten times over. Everyone would be dead. Naruko would be a fine Hokage one day – which was good, because Sakura already had gotten as close to taking on the job as she ever wanted to be.

To repay the Kumo medics for their high-quality care, she'd agreed to spend another month in their village, and working as a medic in the still crowded hospital wards. She wondered if Minato-sensei would be proud of her. He'd always said her greatest weakness was in ignoring her greatest strength. Barely convalescent, she put her knowledge and natural talent at healing to good use - occasionally being compared to Tsunade, whose footsteps she seemed to be following in. It rankled her when they said it, as she wanted to be recognized on her own merits, not someone else's.

Sakura noticed a mural that wrapped around one of the alcoves, which appeared to be of the Sandaime Raikage fighting the Eight-Tails. Much of the foreground was dominated by black lightning and tentacles, the background of clawing mountains and a burgeoning storm. Out of all of the fearsome things she could have noticed in the painting though, the thing her eyes fixed on was the tattoo on the Raikage's right arm.

It made the memory of a particular morning during her stay jump to the fore of her mind. While jogging the highest, most oxygen-poor terraces of the village - a part of her morning exercises to regain her stamina - she crossed paths with a person whom she'd only thought of up to that point as a fellow Shinobi Alliance general. They never spoke beforehand, the war demanding all their attention.

She had recognized Darui and stopped to greet him. One of her favorite memories was of him laughing and smiling at something she said, and then how much fun she'd had with him in the nice little bout of taijutsu that she'd initiated, instead simply continuing on her way.

Tearing her mind away, before the rest tumbled forth from the most intimate corridors of her thoughts like freed prisoners, Sakura concentrated on the large custom-made scabbard and blades on Bee's back. She was starting to feel that vague lightheadedness that came with ascending a tall peak too quickly. She would have to drink extra water later, hopefully staving off a headache or more serious altitude sickness.

They took a circuitous path, either because Bee was trying to keep her from learning the easy way around or the passages to the massive tower actually were that convoluted. She imagined there had to be at least one spiral stair or lift inside, but there was no point in complaining. The hallways they were passing through now all looked the same, and she worked hard to try to pick out distinguishing details; a crack in the golden, cloud-patterned paneling here; a bit of colorful, but frayed rug there; a ceiling light that flickered.

The set of doors he led her to were almost as massive as those at the base of the tower, but painted gold, with a pair of horned storm gods blowing wind at each other from opposing panels. A carved kirin pranced across the lintel. Bee didn't bother knocking.

"Hey bro, you home?" Bee shouted into what appeared to be the Raikage's personal chambers. "He's never in the office this late, I thought we'd check here, but maybe he's got a date," he said, looking around the large, sparsely decorated room. It contained only a rack full of dumbbells and a pair of white leather couches set on opposite walls from each other. Scrolls with calligraphy for "strength" and "willpower" hung on the walls. The doors in the back of the chamber were open, and daylight streamed across the hall from windows farther back. "Ei-sama, I know you're here!" Bee called out.

"WE'RE OUT ON THE VERANDA!" A thunderous voice boomed down the hall. Sakura had heard it quite a few times before, and the Raikage hadn't lost any of his volume.

"Shit, it's always so damn cold out there, we're up so high the weather's never fair. Follow me."

Sakura looked up at him, a little nervous, well familiar with the Raikage's temper. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to bother him during his private time. "Should we come back?"

"No, it's important enough, and he don't like drama. He wouldn't want to piss off your Tsunade-sama," Bee said.

"Are you sure?" she said.

"Do mermaids have tits?" he said, laughing and reminding her a little of Naruko, though Naruko would have just dragged her by the sleeve.

"Okay then."

Outside on the wide, partially screened veranda, the Raikage stood together with a young girl, who looked like she was around four or five years old and bore a strong resemblance to him – if he were a smooth-cheeked child with a long blonde topknot and a pink dress. His robe flapped in the wind, and wide bands of clouds drifted by, breaking up the view of the other peaks nearby.

Sakura noticed he'd acquired some manner of prosthesis for the part of his arm he'd lost to Sasuke. He still wore the enormous studded bracers on his forearms, but the left one now ended in a golden, shining fist. He wore his usual white robe hanging open, showing off his huge, well-defined chest and stomach muscles; at his waist, was a thick golden belt with a lion's head carved into the center.

The pair were in the middle of doing sword katas, shifting in and out of the precise sets of movements, breathing deeply, perfectly synchronized. Once again Sakura was astonished at how graceful and delicately that a man as huge and muscular as the Raikage could move, when he so chose.

"That's his granddaughter, Eira. Looks like she's doing pretty well." Bee said in a low, quiet voice.

"Yes, I see. She's very talented," Sakura said, trying to keep her profile low, so as not to distract them further.

Bee nodded. "Ei-sama's raising her. His daughter Eima, Eira's ma, died last year, and the kid's dad doesn't exactly live here. Hell, that shit was a mess - but bro always knows what's best," he said, giving no clue how the Raikage's daughter had perished. From the tone of his voice, she could tell he remained distraught about it.

"She could be the next Raikage, I suppose," Sakura said, though who even knew if there would still be Kages or the hidden village system in twenty years. Three years ago she wouldn't even have been let inside of the Raikage's tower except to be interrogated.

"You ain't even kidding, but I'll be an old man before I have to do her bidding. Ei-sama's gonna live at least as long as our father, but I think your theory definitely holds water."

Bee and Sakura watched them complete the last set and sheathe their blades, then Eira bowed to her grandfather. "Thank you for the lesson, Ojii-sama," she said, her voice soft and high. She glanced over at the guests with wide, curious eyes as she darted past them to go inside.

Now that they had his attention, the Raikage's presence bore down on Sakura like something physical, his sharp eyes capturing every detail about her and recording it, disassembling her and discerning if she was truly worthy to be standing before him. Tsunade did this too, and Sakura knew more or less how to diffuse or distract her when necessary. It didn't hurt Sakura's standing that they both knew how close she'd come to being his peer, after Danzo's betrayal.

He sat down on one of several benches scattered down the length of the veranda, though this one had next to it a small table with a tray refreshments. He poured himself some water, taking a drink and then looking back up at her, he smirked and snorted. "Haruno Sakura. I guess Tsunade is humoring us after all."

Once she was addressed, Sakura bowed to him; not too deeply, but short of being arrogant. "I have this from her hand, Raikage-sama," she said, holding out the letter she'd carried.

"Bring it over here, Bee. Who else did she send if she was willing to send you? The report said a squad of four was sighted," he said as Bee snatched the letter from Sakura and offered it to his brother.

It wasn't poisoned, explosive or full of chakra eating bugs, but the Raikage ran a charge through it as he took it anyway. Sakura knew things had not changed so much between the villages that such precautions would have been discarded, but if she'd wanted to kill anyone in this place, there were a hundred better ways for her to try.

"The Godaime has outlined everything in the letter, I believe. We have also winnowed some additional intelligence, since we received the assistance request from your Interim Daimyou."

"Go on."

"Our source was able to detain and question a messenger working for a powerful clan from the Fading Island of Fog Country. For some reason it seems they believe they are being threatened by the Lightning Country," she said, puzzled by this last bit, but certain that Suigetsu had good information.

"I know."

"You know?" she said, her eyes widening. Well, that was a waste of a good bargaining chip. Maybe the other parts of Suigetsu's message would make more sense once the Raikage elaborated.

His upper lip curled, somewhere between a snarl and a sardonic grin, making his large, overly-pointed canines more prominent. "Before he was killed, a certain political faction in the capital, which had his support, was considering trying to annex the Fading Island. They feared the Fire or the Mist Countries might make a grab at it."

"What?"

He shook his head. "Hn. I advised against such an action; our numbers haven't recovered from the last great conflict - and our primary duty – the duty of all of the hidden villages, under the Shinobi Alliance Protocols, is peacekeeping. The old general cease-fire with the Fog Country expired a month ago, however. It's something that goes back a hundred years, to the formation of the five great nations. The Fog Country has some powerful ninjutsu, and at different times each of the hidden villages expended quite a few lives to try and acquire it."

"So if that is the case, the assassination is a warning," Sakura said, her mouth pulling into a tight line. This whole mess was something the Daimyou or his government brought upon themselves.

"Perhaps - we're still investigating. The fact that the Hokage sent four of her best, leads me to believe she understands the gravity of the situation," he said, waving the letter at her. "Eight of my strongest people have always protected our Daimyou. That someone, anyone could have slipped past them is unthinkable. We are dealing with a force superior to some of the greatest ninja of any of our villages," he said, his voice raising gradually in volume as he spoke.

"So you believe that this is not over? You're not planning to escalate this I hope. I doubt the Hokage or any official in the Fire Country would approve," she replied, trying to fight back the feelings of anger and revulsion that came with the knowledge that this was the sort of thing that could start another war.

"The leadership in the capital is understandably skittish. I have little interest in making war on the Fog Country, but we can not leave such an act unanswered. OUR PRIDE DEMANDS IT!" he growled, pounding his false fist hard enough on the wood of the bench he sat on that she heard the wood creak and splinter. That he hadn't broken it demonstrated to her that he was exercising restraint – something he wasn't well known for.

Sakura nodded, holding his intense gaze. "I understand, Raikage-sama. The Godaime sent us here because our own Daimyou fears for his life. Once the assassins are eliminated, or a compromise can be reached with the Fog Country, we will return home. Until that time, or we are recalled by the Hokage, you have our full counsel and services."

"As says the Godaime. Very well. Be aware that so long as you remain in this village, you and your squad act only under my orders," said the Raikage firmly, his tone demanding nothing less than complete obedience.

She inclined her head, accepting her fate, and cursing inwardly at Tsunade. "I understand. I will alert you if I receive further information from the Hokage or my sources find something relevant to share."

He stood, pressing his golden fist together with his open palm. "Excellent. You may go. Accommodations will be made for your squad. Bee, keep them company until then," ordered the Raikage.

Bee looked up from his notebook, which he'd been scrawling in feverishly, and scowled at his brother. "Aw come on bro, don't make me miss a show," he complained.

"Fine, I'll send for Shii," the Raikage said.

"Naw, don't do that, he's home at his flat. Just got back in town, don't make his old lady frown. Anyway, Sakura-san hasn't heard the new stuff. How about it? Let your hair down with me, it's not tough," he said, grinning down at her so brightly, that there was no way she could turn him down without being rude.

Sakura was sorely tempted to grab Bee's sunglasses off of his face and throw them at him. "Um, if Raikage-sama doesn't mind."

The Raikage brushed an invisible mote off his robe as he headed inside. "Stay out of trouble. That means you too, Bee."

"For sure, bro," he said, and hopped over the side-rail of the veranda into the clouds drifting past the tower. "Come on!" he called behind him.

"Shit." She jumped.

* * *

When they reached the base of the tower – after some harrowing leaps between the few ledges and balconies on the way down – Sakura was presented with the sight of her team sitting on the ground in a circle with Bee's students, playing a game which apparently required a deck of cards and a kunai. None of them had lost a finger, so she assumed they were having fun.

"Get them settled, En. You two ought to go," he pointed at his remaining students. "And set up for the show. Meet you here in a half-hour, Sakura-san. We're gonna get our groove on," Bee said, and leaped off again.

With little complaint at having to abruptly end their game, they all stood, and En led the four of them inside at the left side of the base of the tower through a tunnel, instead of the main doors. They walked down into what looked like an outdated barracks. Sakura thought the rooms were likely used only when there was some sort of event like the Chuunin Exams, or visitors came who weren't important enough or too dangerous to be left loose in the main part of the tower. She had expected as much. They were here for a very different purpose than her last stay and she didn't intend to remain here long.

Their room was carved deep inside the mountain, so both the air and and water had to be piped in, and all the light was from incandescent lamps hovering above at even intervals. She admired the amount of engineering that had to have gone into the tower, but couldn't escape the oppressive thought that all of the rock, steel and timber that made up the massive structure above, could come tumbling down at any moment.

The furnishings were simple but adequate for their needs and the room smelled fresh like it had been cleaned and the bedding aired out thoroughly. There was a common area with a table and chairs and a hard, blocky couch; in the sleeping area were eight beds, four to each side, while each bed had two drawers built underneath, and a chest at the foot for storage; the showers and toilets were down the hall, and nicely enough there were separate ones for kunoichi.

Before he left, En informed them that someone would come with dinner soon, get any other odds and ends they needed and likely be their minder for the length of their stay. She wondered who would be stuck with that unenviable duty.

When the boy was gone, Sakura unslung her belt packs on the first bed, and sat down and started taking off her sandals. Kakashi took the bed across from hers, Sai took the one beside, and Yamato the one next to Kakashi's.

"I promised Bee-san I'd see his show tonight, so I'm going to go take a shower. The three of you might as well clean up and rest. I don't expect the Raikage to give us our orders until tomorrow," she said.

"You're going to watch Bee's show of your own free will?" said Yamato, slipping off his mask. She could tell he was trying not to laugh at her. Sakura recalled he'd been with Naruko and Bee when the former was trying to harness the full power of the Kyuubi. He must not have enjoyed the constant exposure to Bee's creative urges.

"It won't be that bad, I'm sure. And if it is, there's probably a bar." Sakura contemplated how drunk she could allow herself to get, as she pulled her supply scroll out and summoned up a fresh set of clothing - the street clothes, not the extra uniform - and her toiletries. Every inch of her body felt scuzzy now that she knew there was the possibility of a hot shower. She didn't have a lot of time, but it was enough.

"Better you than me, Sakura-taicho," Yamato said.

"I can still drag you along, you know," she said, irritated at his display of attitude.

He laughed, starting in on the buckles to his chest armor. "I wasn't invited."

"I wouldn't mind coming, Sakura-sensei," said Kakashi.

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. She could almost see the grin underneath his black mask, and the hungry gleam in his eye was troubling. "You're staying here. All of you."

Cracking her knuckles, Sakura then did a set of handseals - her "Protective Sphere" jutsu, which blocked out all chakra incoming and outgoing. It was also soundproof and surrounded all four of them, glowing bright green. They could talk privately for just a moment.

"Sai, when you are done settling in, send one of your ink messengers back to Konoha. Tell the Hokage we are here safely and the Raikage expects to make use of us, further messages incoming. Kakashi, search the room for bugs, traps and such and then set up some of your own in strategic locations. Yamato see if you can find another exit and if you can't, make one and have Sai disguise it. Even if we leave this place tomorrow on the Raikage's orders, we might find ourselves stuck back here again later, and I'd prefer to have a plan in place if we need to escape discreetly. Understood?"

"Yes ma'am," they said in unison. Sakura released the jutsu, and went to prepare herself for whatever Bee had in store for her.

* * *

They arrived back at the main entrance at almost exactly the same time. Bee was dressed the same except that he'd left his swords at home, and put on a larger pair of sunglasses. "No weapons in the venue, since violence ain't on the menu," he said.

"I'm not carrying anything," she said. Which was a lie, but the blade doubled as a hair pin, so she decided it fell under the '_I'm a goddamn ninja, my body is a weapon_' clause.

The place she followed him to was tiny, but open to the air on one end, so it wasn't stuffy. She planted herself at the bar. For a while she just drank and watched the little flags strung across the crossbeam above flutter in the breeze, while the stage lights glittered across the bottles like flying sparks.

Bee wasn't the only one performing that night, and seemed to act as the MC for the place, introducing the other musicians besides doing his own show. It wasn't just rap, there were people doing more traditional music, and she heard drums and shamisen played at different points, and even a singer accompanied by a flute.

Kumogakure she discovered also had some very interesting variations on the rice wine she was used to from home. She had already sampled quite a few of these, before she sensed someone take the seat to her left. He was the first that night, the only one willing or able to ignore her bleak expression and the aura of vexation she was emitting.

"I'm sorry," she said, not looking over. It took all her concentration to keep the sake cup still, willing her hand not to shake. She couldn't hear the music anymore just the roar of blood in her ears; the alcohol close to her nose didn't hide his keen, pleasant scent, nor the discernible charge in the air around him.

She heard him make a sound in his throat, a little like a laugh or a moan of despair. "Don't be," he said finally in his deep, calm voice. "You did the right thing. I shouldn't have asked you to stay."

Sakura shook her head. "He set this up you know." She was aware of it from the start, and went along with it anyway. Sakura supposed that meant she really did want to see him, know he was fine – hopefully moved on.

"Bee-san's always looking out for everyone else, I guess. He wasn't the one who told me you were here, though. The Boss-"

Some of the languor she'd acquired from the alcohol wore off, and she sat up straight. "He did not!" she said in disbelief, and probably a little too loud. The Raikage knew about them? She clapped a hand over her mouth and looked Darui in the face, embarrassed.

He didn't appear much different than the last time she saw him - maybe the circles under his dark eyes were a little deeper; his thick, white-blonde hair was in need of a trim as always, shaggy and falling across his handsome, broad-featured face. He was grinning and shaking his head at her, reaching out and pulling her hand away from her mouth.

"Sorry, but he did. He said if I thought things were dull, I should go see Bee-san's special guest tonight. I didn't know what he was talking about when I got here, so I asked Bee-san."

His smile was what undid her, her heart rising to her throat, while her regrets were subsumed by a wave of affection and longing. Sakura set down the brimming cup of sake. "Darui, I-"

He shook his head. "We can talk about it later, maybe when you're not wasted."

"Later I might be gone," she said.

"I know. Come on, I'll walk you back," he said, holding out his hand. Sakura took it, and even managed to stand up with a fair amount of grace; then either the ground or her knees started to wobble, and he caught her arm more firmly.

"Not used to the altitude yet," she murmured, as they walked out arms linked, fingers threaded together. She let herself lean into his solidness; he was the only thing keeping her from stumbling.

"Yeah, right. Tell me if you think you're gonna be sick."

"Hnh. I'm not going to be sick. I haven't seen Samui yet. How is she doing?" she asked, partially out of curiosity, but also as a distraction from the warm feeling in the pit of her belly that had nothing to do with the alcohol. She felt anything but sick right now.

"She's good, her team's in the capital leading the investigation. Shii and I just got back. There's not much to work with, from all appearances," he said.

"We know where to look at least," she said, and she wouldn't much mind leaving Kumogakure to do so. In the dark, tiny lights glowed from the rails of the different terraces, between the banks of clouds, and she could see the signal towers lit up on several of the peaks. Everything looked so alien and harsh in this place.

"Yeah, but they're not just going to to hand their people over and apologize. Boss says we're going to take the assassins down by any means necessary." The means would likely be making an assault upon the Fog Country's leadership, until they were dead or the culprits were found.

Sakura looked up at him, frustrated. "But that is exactly the sort of thing the Shinobi Alliance is supposed to work against. We'll figure something out. None of us can afford what your boss is proposing."

He shrugged a little. "Sorry if I seem pessimistic; shinobi culture didn't get this way overnight. Warfare and brutality are each a part of our identities, it's going to be a while before all these new rules sink in."

"Which is why we've got to apply them everywhere we can. I know it's a pain, but the world is changing. Madara proved that there's only so much use a bunch of high-level killers have in this existence before we turn to self-genocide." She paused, thinking about how hard it had been to save Sasuke, and how much it had cost everyone around him.

"I know I'm having trouble reconciling my belief that some people absolutely need to be killed for the greater good, with the strictures that have cropped up regarding the new tribunals. I imagine there are plenty of people who still don't accept all the Protocols either," she said, knowing she was giving him an earful and not really caring if it offended him.

Darui didn't laugh like she expected him to, his expression instead carrying a sort of wry admiration. "You sure talk a lot when you're drunk. Most people jabber about stupid crap, but Haruno Sakura goes straight into politics or medicine," he chuckled, squeezing her arm against his side.

"Is it that a problem?" she giggled, remembering a time when she was much younger, and it was okay to laugh like that without being under the influence. It felt so natural to be with him, just walking at night together, regardless of where it was that they were walking.

"No. I'm kind of enjoying remembering. I kind of missed how you and Shii used to get into it so bad. It was like watching a battle only with words. It's funny, I was kind of surprised when you didn't go for him," he said, scratching the back of his head, embarrassed at the admission.

She wasn't surprised. "Maybe you just attract a certain type of personality." Just like she did.

"Could be," he said. They were closing in on the tower, though it didn't seem like they'd been walking that long. "Where did they stick you guys in the tower? Low or high?"

"Down in the dungeons - I mean barracks. It's not super posh, but I think we'll be alright," she said, thinking about the narrow bed and snoring teammates that awaited her there. She'd have to use her detoxification jutsu before she went to sleep, and rehydrate. As much as being tipsy was helping her now, tomorrow she would feel very differently.

"West-subsection; the boss doesn't need to impress you," Darui said.

"I fail to see how anyone could not be impressed by him," she muttered, her tiredness catching up with her, faster and faster.

"I suppose you never got to meet his wife," he said with a snort.

"She must be amazing," Sakura said.

"Was amazing."

"Oh. Sorry," she apologized.

"That's my line. Anyway, that was a long time ago. She was my aunt on my dad's side," he explained. "The stuff of family legend."

"Ah." She fumbled for words, but it was hard to think of anything but to mention her entire family was dead, and she knew it was hard. That wasn't what she wanted to talk about though.

"You look beat. I guess your squad is probably wondering where you are," he said. His concern was real, and there was a part of her that hated him for it.

"I doubt it. I have at least one man on my team who has put tracking devices in my food before," she said, having been subject to Yamato's little trick several times. Sometimes he even told her he was doing it.

"Nice."

"Yes, I'll be nice and not tell you what else he can do with them," she said. One of the things she'd always admired about Yamato was that his power was often only limited by his creativity.

"Ugh, don't. I've read plenty of files on all the freaky shit Konohagakure ninjas are capable of," he said, making a sour face.

"I suppose we did produce Orochimaru." He was first on her list of why a tribunal system would never work, because the longer that monster lived, the further the miasma that was his existence spread.

"I guess the fact that you come from there means I can't be too prejudiced," he said, as they stopped in front of the cavern entrance. "Do you want me to walk you all the way?"

She laughed. "No, I think I've got my feet again. I should go," she said, holding his hand in both of hers. He stroked her hair, and then tipped up her chin with the other.

"C'mere." He leaned down and kissed her on the mouth, lingering long enough for her to kiss him back, and straightened again. "That would have been a nice goodbye," he said. "But I like it better as a hello. I'll see you tomorrow."


	3. Before Destruction

A/N Pt 3: I went into writing this chapter thinking Kakashi would be comforting Sakura and she was going to go along with it, and finished it with him feeling like a kicked dog and her acting crazier than ever. Make of that what you will.

* * *

Crouching in the darkness and doing his best impression of a small harmless boulder, Kakashi silently raged. Of course she'd told him – them, though the others had actually listened – told him to stay back at their austere underground quartering, but he'd had a bad feeling about letting her go. He knew she didn't need a someone to protect her, but he also couldn't deny his own nature and his need to know what was going on.

And now... now he started to understand why she hadn't come home from Kumogakure for several months after the war.

He had already acknowledged Sakura was acting very odd on the way here, but her behavior once she reached the cramped bar Bee performed at, was distressing. Kakashi hadn't seen her drink a single drop of alcohol in the past two years; before that she'd had what the rest of their team gently referred to as a drinking problem. Kakashi was so surprised at her level of consumption tonight, he almost went and tapped her on the shoulder to take her back. Then _he_ appeared.

Tall, blond, and dark-skinned like roughly half of Kumogakure's populace, he bore a pair of shoulder tattoos that announced to anyone with even a passing knowledge of Kumogakure's roster, that he would be an exceptionally formidable opponent. His name was Darui, though Kakashi knew him more as general of the First Division of the Shinobi Alliance; a man who helped seal Uchiha Madara's defeat; right hand of the Raikage, and possessor of some very uncopyable jutsus. In short, his sensei's equal in every way, and someone dear to her if their last interaction was anything to go by.

It would be so easy for Kakashi to hate him right now, if he hadn't already admired Darui as a shinobi. Now all he could do was glare at the man's back, as he heard Sakura shuffling carefully towards the stairs down to the barracks.

"She puts on a good face, but she's probably going to be sick. You might want to keep an eye on her tonight, kid," Darui said, with his hands in his pockets. He turned and was looking in Kakashi's general direction, though not right at him.

Kakashi cursed inwardly, having thought he'd been extra careful to avoid detection. Sakura was not gentle nor patient when she was disobeyed; if Darui has noticed him she might have, too. He could admit to himself that he had been irked at the idea that she was running off to have fun with Bee-san and leaving them with busywork. He wasn't counting on her meeting up with an old friend like this though.

"When did you-" His voice was muffled by his ANBU mask, but he knew he sounded a little unnerved. Dealing with shinobi of this level of power and experience came with a whole different set of rules. He thought he'd learned that well enough from the insanely strong members of his own team, but it seemed peacetime was making him lazy. Kakashi jumped down, though he didn't leave the shadows.

Darui shrugged a little, and grinned at him. "As we were leaving. I wasn't trained as a sensor, but I'm not too dull at picking out chakra signatures. Especially one following at a precise distance. I feel like we've met before," he said.

"In the war," Kakashi confirmed, staying vague and terse; if the general could already single out his chakra, it was likely he could just as quickly put a face and a name to him, too. If he hadn't said anything more he was being polite.

"That's what I thought," he nodded and snorted, looking back towards the barracks entrance. "At least I know she's not mad at me. Sorry you saw that," he said, and he sounded sincere. Kakashi had the sense that Darui hadn't kissed Sakura because he knew he was watching, but in spite of him being there.

His stomach flipped over, in a lurch that was miles from jealousy and perilously close to fear. "You're lucky to have her regard I guess, but she isn't here to stay," he grumbled, his irritation surfacing a little more raw than he'd intended, and the unvoiced '_with you'_ hung in the air.

It seemed that Darui caught what he meant though, and sent a withering glance in Kakashi's direction. "Sorry kid, but you're out of line. Sakura-san is a hero in Kumogakure and has my utmost respect. She should have yours, too. Don't act like you speak for her or determine her destiny," he said, and turned to walk away, unhurried, hands still in his pockets. "Also, you might want to watch your back," he called over his shoulder. "Not everyone here is fond of the alliance with Konoha."

Paranoid, Kakashi couldn't help but glance behind him, though he couldn't see or sense anyone else around. Whether that was a warning or a threat, he didn't know. He didn't like the thought of either, as interesting as a fight with Darui might be. More likely he was getting at the fact that Sakura was the only one of their group with permission to move freely in the village. If Kakashi were caught sneaking around, he could be killed or sent back and no one from the Fire Country could complain.

He suspected that Sakura's positive history with the Kumo shinobi was the whole reason she was the Hokage's first choice for this mission. Though he hadn't realized beforehand how deep her ties here were. He watched the man who he now thought of as a rival, leap away. Kakashi wondered if Sakura would have been considered a defector or a dual citizen, if she had decided to remain in this place back then; it was something he didn't enjoy contemplating at all.

He didn't understand what Darui meant about respect. He held Sakura in almost as high of esteem as the Hokage. Irritated, Kakashi used shunshin-no-jutsu to cross the short distance to catch up with her, keeping a good amount of space between them, and hoped she wouldn't see or hear him follow her in.

If she noticed his presence at any point, she didn't let him know it. As they reached the quarters, Sakura didn't go straight to the hard comfort of her bed as he expected her to; instead she made a wobbly beeline toward the kunoichi side of the baths and went in.

Standing in the hallway outside the entrance, Kakashi debated on what he should do next, heed Darui's advice and watch over her or go to bed like nothing happened. Then he heard water start running, followed by Sakura retching and coughing.

He wasn't a pervert like Jiraiya-sama or Naruko, with no misgivings about peeping in on the opposite sex in the bath, but Sakura was definitely sick. Kakashi pushed the white porcelain mask back off his face and peered around the polished stone edge of the open doorway.

Beyond a row of sinks, inside the wide shower area, Sakura was bent over with her hands pressed against the dark, textured stone wall under one of the showerheads, water raining down on her. Her clothing quickly became soaked, the red cloth clinging to her skin, and he watched as she reached up and pulled a silver ornament out of her hair and angrily tossed it on the floor where it clanged and rattled over the tile. Her hair cascaded down as she stood up, letting the water run over her head and back. Then she leaned back and caught some of the spray in her mouth, only to bend over again to spit it out in the drain below.

He couldn't see her expression, but he could imagine it and wondered what about tonight had set her off. Five, then ten minutes passed and she didn't move. Then with little warning, her arm drew back and she punched the wall in front of her.

Kakashi knew she hadn't put much chakra into it, because the smooth rock wall was only a little caved in, partially exposing the waterworks behind. Dust and shards of stone crumbled to her feet, while one of the pipes must have buckled or broken, as the water pressure to the shower above diminished to a slow dribble. She sank down onto the wet floor, dripping wet and drew her knees up close to her body, to rest her head on them.

Curled up the way she was, he didn't expect her arm to whip out. With his sharingan eye closed he barely caught the sight of the projectile leave her hand. It hit the wall opposite to him hard - a piece of stone he thought - ricocheting into his side and forcing a yelp out of him before he could dodge.

"Go get my pack," she said in a grim, harsh tone, with her chin on top of her forearms. She sounded more pained than angry, though she _was_ angry.

"Sensei-"

"Get it." Sakura didn't look at him, didn't acknowledge he'd seen her like this.

Rubbing his side, Kakashi obediently went back to the sleeping area. How she was acting reminded him strongly of when Sasuke had run away. To say she hadn't taken it well was an understatement. Put in the same position, Kakashi thought he might have handled things differently, but then he also had tried to kill Sasuke on several occasions without explicit permission to do so.

Sakura was fiercely protective of the three of them and could get quite emotional about it – regardless of what the ninja laws said about the demeanor of an ideal shinobi. He supposed they were the closest thing she had to family; the four of them orphans, all of them trying to cling to someone, have a place to go when the shadows got too long and the night too deep.

Both of their other teammates were still awake hen he reached the bunks. From what he could see, Sai was working on a rather detailed charcoal drawing of Yamato, while Yamato was laying on his creaky bed reading one of those boring split-spined, six-hundred page historical novels he adored so much. Kakashi couldn't see the cover but they were all the same – some scar-faced ninja in old-fashioned armor, carrying a ravished-looking woman who had the same number of hair ornaments as she did brain cells.

"So I guess she caught you," Sai said, barely looking away from his reclining subject.

"Sort of," he said, grabbing the large white pack on Sakura's bed by the straps with one hand, and with the other drawing out the tanto that was bound to the top, leaving it on top of the mattress. He really didn't want her pulling that on him.

Yamato looked up. "We heard a loud noise after I sensed you two coming back up. Did Sakura-taicho try to kill you?"

Kakashi's eye narrowed at his flip tone. "Nothing like that, she got a drink spilled on her dress and is waiting for this in the bathroom. I'll be right back," he said, his lie so glib he almost believed it himself.

"We should have had Sai send an ink clone," Yamato said. He probably thought Sai wouldn't have held back any of the details.

"Sakura-sensei can tell you about it if she wants to," Kakashi said, and went back to the wide corridor.

When he looked around the corner again, Kakashi wasn't sure what to expect. She wasn't making much noise. "Sensei, I-" He gasped.

Sakura looked up from where she stood over one of the sinks, which she was leaning on. The first thing he noticed was the fact that she had taken off her shorts and sandals and was dressed only in her wet shirt - which was hanging open - and her underwear; the second thing he noticed were the streaks of tears on her face. Her face couldn't be any redder than his was when their eyes met.

Quickly, she turned on the sink and scooped up water to splash on her face, sniffled hard, splashed her face again, and grabbed for one of the towels. "I don't know how much you saw earlier, but if you tell the others anything, I will kill you," she said, though her saying as much was something he had already lied in what he thought was a convincing manner about. He attempted to gather his courage and his wits, which were more than a little addled by her state of undress.

"I won't. You might want to explain to me what happened that made you go hit the booze so hard after so long. I can still smell it on you," he said, setting the bag down on the dry sink next to the one she stood at. The floor was wet all around her, and the rest of her clothes made untidy mounds like washed up seaweed, across the dark gray tiles.

"This won't affect the mission. I'll be fine tomorrow," she said, her voice rough at first, and then breaking a couple of times as she spoke. She wasn't looking at him, but down at the drain.

"How do you know that? The last time I saw you this upset was after I went out and tried to kill Sasuke, right before the real fighting started."

"You're still so damn cool about it, too. What can I say? Personal failures are something I take to heart. This one just happens to be very personal. I should know by now that things don't go away, just because you ignore them. I should have died that time. I really should have," she said, her words spilling out so fast, she sounded like she was having some sort of panic attack.

"What the hell are you talking about?" he said his voice loud and harsh, even knowing it wasn't going to be helpful to get angry with her. She was starting to scare him though, and it was hard to be stoic when one of the strongest people he knew was breaking down.

"Go away, Kakashi," she said, staring down into the sink again, water dripping off the faucet.

"Not until you tell me what's going on. I don't like seeing you like this. You were different when you came back home, but I thought it was just that you survived, that you dried out. I was so happy when you came home – we all were." He had a sense that he was seeing her with all the layers peeled back, like he'd bit down to the hard pit of a peach and it cracked in half in his mouth.

"You don't get it - at all. I wasn't coming back. And then-" she trailed off. "He's the reason I'm still here, and he's the reason I returned," she said, though keeping the facts so opaque that he didn't see how he could get it.

"I don't understand," he said, and ran her words through his mind again. _Wasn't coming back...reason I'm still here._ If she was suggesting what he thought she was, after the war while she was separated from them, for some reason she'd come close to ending her life. He realized then that he'd spoken too soon. He knew exactly what she was telling him, and how Darui figured into it.

"I hope you never do. Go away," she said, pressing her face into the white plush towel, and reaching for her bag.

Kakashi really didn't want to have to do this, but- "If you don't come completely clean with me, sensei, I will report your behavior to the Hokage. Yamato can take over, he's got plenty of experience. I don't think you should be here. I think you're sick."

She immediately started laughing at him, as she started pulling little bottles and a couple of packets out of her bag along with a hairbrush. "Sick, huh? Well maybe a little. I told you I'll be fine tomorrow, Tsunade is counting on me. I won't fail."

"Sakura," he started to say, but she reached up and grabbed his shirt at the neck, effectively pulling his mask down. It surprised him enough, that he tried to catch her hand. This was a mistake; her expression shifted from irritated to furious the moment his palm clapped over her skin.

"You know it's funny you should bring up Yamato. There's something I always liked about him. He knows when to mind his own damn business. And if I fuck him, he understands that all I want is the sex, not him. You on the other hand, you're the all-or-nothing type. I knew it from the day I met you. I never thought you'd turn it on me, my own darling pupil," she said, looking him straight in the eye, sneering, her barbs tearing in and sinking deep.

"I never-"

"You never what? Stared at me like you wanted to seduce me but didn't know quite how to go about it? When you were sixteen I thought it was just hormones getting to you - but to look at me like that now – is it an extension of your little crush, perhaps? Coming on to me like I belonged to you in front of our teammates - and now you're telling _me_ to explain what is going on?" she said acidly, and let his shirt go while shoving him back.

Kakashi stared wide-eyed down at her, stunned, like she'd hit him much harder than she had. His heart was in his throat. Her words were calculated to hurt, and he knew he couldn't let it get to him. He should say something, defend himself, tell her she meant so much to him, more than he could express with clumsy words alone. His tongue was still, however.

Dismayed at his inability to fight back, he watched as she pulled her canteen out of her pack, setting the white, canvas-covered bottle down in front of her; she then chose one of the medicine bottles, opened it and shook out a couple of nondescript white pills. She threw them back into her throat, her angry eyes never leaving his face. Kakashi wondered what she saw there, as his heart thudded painfully, crushed by the tightness of his chest.

Sakura took another drink from her canteen, and then set it down in the sink. As far as he could tell it was just water, he didn't smell alcohol - not from the container anyway; she still fairly reeked of it, along with the damp and sweat and what was left of her perfume. Her long pink hair was stringy and disheveled, and he continued to try not to stare, but she was barely clothed. He thought in that moment that she looked like a she'd weathered a violent storm at sea and washed ashore. A beautiful wreck.

She reached up and touched his face, trailing her fingers down his cheek softly. The weight of her stare brought him close to whimpering. "You look scared, Kakashi," she said and cupped his chin in her hands, tugging his face down closer to hers.

His whole body _was_ quivering, his stomach felt like ice, and for a moment he thought he'd lost control of himself and suspected genjutsu. "Sakura, tell me what happened," he said, grasping her wrists and pulling her hands away.

"Did you follow me?"

"Yes," he admitted, letting her go.

Sakura laughed. "Then you know my secret. I had hoped our feelings had faded, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Still, he can't leave and I can't stay. That's all there is to it. I came very close to staying, though," she said, as she picked up her hairbrush and started working out the tangles from her hair.

"Here? Why?" He couldn't fathom her abandoning them, any more than he could understand her falling for an outsider.

Shinobi weren't allowed to live as they pleased, particularly if they came from certain clans, like those which had kekkei genkai or unique jutsus. There were laws, many of them severe in penalty, regarding everything from how many children one was allowed to have, to which clans were permitted to marry first cousins. Becoming involved with a person from another village entirely was something that could be considered in the same category as treason. It was highly discouraged, lest the village's secrets become compromised.

Intervillage relations were supposed to be changing, becoming more open and cooperative now that they had all fought under the banner of "Shinobi", but the old rules and enmities were deeply worn. It had only been about fifteen years since Kumogakure men tried to kidnap one of the Hyuuga girls, nearly setting off a war between Konoha and Kumo, after all.

Sakura threw the brushed half of her hair over one shoulder and then caught up the rest to finish. "I guess it's mostly that I never fell in love with this place, just one person in it. So, the same day Darui asked me if I wanted to try to obtain a transfer permit, I left. That's what Bee was needling me about when we arrived. Also, I knew one of you would come after me. If it wasn't Naruko, it would be you. Maybe even Sasuke, maybe all three. Tsunade wouldn't let me go easily, either."

Kakashi nodded in agreement. "Ah. You're right, I would have come after you. You don't belong here; we need you. I need you," he said, and hoped it didn't sound quite as desperate as he felt. She never said she was reconsidering her choice.

Setting down her red-lacquered hairbrush, which was inlaid with a circle of mother of pearl on the back, Sakura gave an exasperated sigh. "Go to bed, Kakashi," she said, using a tone very like that of a mother admonishing her disobedient child. This was something she generally reserved for Naruko and Sasuke when the pair were bickering.

He tugged at the material of his loose collar, wanting to cover his face again. "Promise me that in the morning, if you haven't completely recovered, you'll go home," he said, leaning close to her ear.

"I promise," she said, and smacked his cheek lightly with the back of her hand. "Now go."

Leaving her there alone was hard, but as soon as he stepped outside he immediately heard what sounded like the remainder of her wet clothing falling to the floor; following that, he sensed a surge of Sakura's healing chakra. If she intended to be back to one-hundred percent tomorrow, he supposed it was best if he tried to follow her example.

* * *

Though Kakashi saw her go to bed, he didn't see her leave the next morning.

At home he usually woke up before his alarm at six to do his morning routine; work out, do a little meditation or read Icha Icha Paradise - whatever felt more relaxing; brush his teeth and put on his uniform whether he was on duty or not. He was rigid in his personal habits and expected to wake up at six as usual, and maybe he take a nap later if they weren't sent out right away.

It was eight according to his travel clock when he woke, and as he rose he realized the others were also sitting up, rubbing the sleep from their eyes - except for Sakura. Her empty bed had been quickly made up, the sheets wrinkled and uneven and her things were gone.

"Where's Sakura?" he said, speaking what everyone else was thinking, and pushing back a wave of panic.

Yamato stood, looking towards the common area, but there was no sound or movement from there. "I didn't hear her leave. What about you, Sai?" he said, peering into the next room.

"I didn't hear anything. Surprising. Usually that old hag makes enough noise in the morning to wake up the dead," he said.

"I don't think she was taken – the bed's made. She must have used a jutsu," Kakashi said, feeling around for residual amounts of her chakra by running his own chakra over his skin. The only reason he could think that she'd do such a thing as this, would be to completely ensure she wasn't followed.

Yamato frowned, pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "If she did, it was timed - we woke simultaneously. Maybe she left a note."

Fortunately, she did leave them a message. Kakashi found it in the middle of the dining table in the the common area, half underneath a salt shaker. The note was written on the back of an old drugstore receipt, further suggesting to him that she was in a hurry to go do whatever it was she needed to do. He didn't like his first thought of what that might be.

Kakashi read it aloud. "_Hope the three of you got enough rest. Went out for a run, back soon. En is taking us to the Raikage for orders at approx 09:00. Breakfast is on the tray on the counter. Be ready and waiting. Sakura._"


	4. Something To Look Forward To

Waking alone and thus a little disappointed, Sakura pushed back a blanket considerably softer and warmer than the one she'd left behind at the barracks. The black and white quilt smelled like him, smelled of them and it brought a warm, languid smile to her face. Just the memory of him opening the window and pulling her into his arms made her want to melt back into the covers and wait for him to come back; she could "apologize" again for last night. Darui had proven quite receptive to her first apology - though she'd had to wake him quite early to offer it.

The cloud-filtered sunlight breaking through the window and the sound of unfamiliar birds chirping outside, made her feel like she was still within a hazy dream; but she wasn't, and there were things that needed doing. Off to the left, Sakura could hear movement mixed in with the low drone of music from the radio out in the small kitchen. He was making something in there, though she didn't think she'd have time for breakfast.

_Time, what time is it?_

As she sat up and drew her hair together over her shoulder, her eyes flicked to the small, dented, silver clock sitting atop the antique scroll chest across the room; it was a little after eight o'clock. She didn't have much time until she had to go back. Darui had mentioned they would be at the same briefing at nine, and she had to return to her men before that.

Thinking of her team made her clench her teeth. She was thoroughly annoyed with the three of them being so overprotective to the point that she couldn't move on her own any longer. It had been this way ever since she'd returned to Konoha. She had been forced into taking extreme measures this time, and she wondered if her little display of power would make them more or less tractable.

It hurt that Kakashi had proven that he could not be trusted at all to obey her. She was still angry with him for that. Sakura knew it was partially her own fault for teasing him, favoring him like she had in the past. Letting him kiss her was just the last leaf to fall off the tree. He existed in that uncomfortable spot in her psyche somewhere between child and partner, and continued to try to establish himself in the latter category. She wondered if their talk last night was enough to convince him it was futile.

Sakura rubbed her eyes a second time and slipped out of bed, looking for her clothes. The red and white and black items of her usual outfit remained pooled conveniently near the foot of the bed where she'd discarded them. As she finished dressing, the scent of tea wafted in and with it Darui. He was shirtless and had a mild, sleepy look on his face as he offered her the steaming earthenware cup.

"Good timing," she said, finishing the buckles on her second knee-high boot and accepting it. Tea was often served cold in the Lightning Country and generally later in the day; people here had coffee in the morning instead, but she never acquired the taste for it. It was nice of him to remember.

"I try," he said, grinning down at her like he couldn't quite believe she was sitting there, nor that she'd so boldly come to him. Darui pulled the chair over from his desk and sat down across from her, putting his feet up on the bed.

She couldn't help admiring him either; his pale, shaggy hair was still wet from showering, and he wore only a loose pair of dark gray track pants, so she had a good view of his nicely-muscled torso. He looked so at ease, she wondered how he could be the same guy who supposedly took down the entire Muboshi Clan for insulting the Third Raikage, when he was a kid. She'd wondered before how much of that story was true, but she'd never asked him about it.

Sakura had plenty of unpleasantness in her own past, and it couldn't all be written off to self-preservation. She was still referred to "Heart-cutter Sakura" in certain parts of the Earth Country, after a fight where she judiciously if somewhat bloodily applied her knowledge of medical jutsu. There was always more to stories like that – and anyway, she'd cut out that bastard's kidneys, not his heart. The heart was much harder to get to.

"What?" Darui said, noticing her staring and the dark shift in her expression. "Having regrets already?"

"No, just thinking too much. I missed you," she said, and flashed a desirous smile at him over her tea. Sakura had taken what she could get, but now it felt like a few hours with him wasn't going to be enough; it was a greedy fire she'd just fed.

"I kinda got that vibe when you were knocking on my window this morning," he said, nudging her thigh with his big toe.

"If you only knew how glad I was you actually woke up. You always sleep so heavily," she said, teasing. He motioned for her to come over to him.

She stood up and moved to loop a leg over onto his lap, facing him. Wanting her hands free, she set her cup on the smooth intersection of stone between the two big, black-and-white, cloud-patterned carpets that covered most of the floor, then he had her full attention. Darui wrapped his arms around her tight like she were something precious he had to hold onto or lose, and pressed his face into her hair. She'd missed this embrace.

"Not to guilt trip you or anything, but I wasn't sleeping too well after we talked last night," he said, running his hands softly over her back and making her sigh.

"I wasn't at my best, I'll admit. I promise I won't do anything like that again." If she could have this moment, anything was possible.

"I'm sorry I didn't get there sooner."

She gave a little laugh, and nuzzled into his neck. "How long has it been since I left - nineteen, twenty months maybe?" she asked.

"Sounds about right. Don't worry, I wasn't lonely," he said, with a small uneasy laugh.

Sakura pulled back from him a little to look him in the eyes. "I didn't expect you to be. I knew you'd be all right without me." She certainly hadn't abstained, since she hadn't thought she'd ever return.

"You didn't give me a choice," he said, and his tone edged over into resentment. He was usually so easygoing it was difficult to believe she had hurt him so deeply. There was anger in the set of his mouth, behind his eyes. Not the violent sort, though she'd seen that face before, too, in other circumstances.

"There was no choice," she said, frustrated, feeling some of her own resentment boiling up. "Konoha can't afford losing me. Your village didn't get destroyed twice in three years; that was bad, but then the war happened. It will take years to replace the thousands of skilled people we lost. That's the worst part for me, Darui - every time I go into Tsunade's office anymore she asks me if I'm going to push out a brat for her before I die. It's not exactly a pleasant situation, but am a Konoha kunoichi first and above all."

As far as having a family, Tsunade couldn't force her; but now that the reconstruction was well underway and the the Shinobi Alliance hadn't completely collapsed into yet another war, Sakura apparently had no reason for not doing her part to help restore the population. If there were a single person in Konoha she was interested in sharing parental responsibilities with, perhaps it wouldn't have been such an issue, but there wasn't and it was.

Darui nodded and sighed, leaning his head against her shoulder. "Let me know if you ever want my help with that last bit," he said, making her laugh nervously as she kissed his hair. This morning must have addled his mind – this relationship, whatever it was, wasn't worth getting into that much trouble over.

As a Kumo ninja bearing a kekkei genkai, there was no way he could or even should say something like that lightly. She'd never have even considered sleeping with him if she thought her contraception could fail. Then she'd be well and truly stuck in Kumogakure - at least until the child was born. From there she'd have to decide whether to stay or go back home alone.

"Even if I did – even if we could, I thought you said you already did your duty for your clan." She knew he wasn't married, but he'd mentioned in the past having a son who he didn't get to spend enough time with.

"Doesn't mean I don't want a family with somebody I like. Sorry, I'm not talking about breaking the law, but if you change your mind."

"You're serious, aren't you?" This went way beyond just wanting her to stay.

"Sakura-" he started to say, when someone began knocking on the front door of the apartment. "Shit. It's Shii." They heard the door open, and she moved to stand, but Darui's hands held her hips firm against him. He smirked in amusement at her as she narrowed her eyes at him. She didn't have time to get into it with his partner.

"Darui, are you up?" Shii yelled from the main room, knowing Darui's tendency to oversleep as well as Sakura did.

She glanced over her shoulder at the wide-paned row of windows, her intended escape route. "I should get back."

"Not even going to say hello?" he said.

"I'll wait until the briefing. Kiss me. After this it's strictly business." Which would be good, because then she could delay processing what he had just proposed.

He did and released her. "I am serious," he said in parting, as Shii appeared through the bedroom doorway.

Sakura smiled and winked at them as she jumped backwards out the window into the gray morning; she somersaulted and then used shunshin no jutsu to bound away, leaping between the narrow curves of the roofs built into the round peaks, and back to the heart of the village.

* * *

Geared up and ready, her team was waiting where she left them, but the mood in the barracks was tense. None of the three looked any worse for a couple extra hours sleep, but by their sullen expressions she supposed they didn't appreciate her methods.

Kakashi glowered at her, but said nothing. She felt a twinge of guilt at her harsh treatment of him the night before. There was really nothing else she could say to him though, that wasn't better off dealt with after they returned home. She'd rather he be angry with her than infatuated – then again there was no reason he couldn't be both she supposed. She'd have to hope he didn't push her again.

"Can I have a word with you, sempai?" Yamato asked, as they waited for their escort. She nodded and they stepped out into the barren, harshly-lit hallway, well away from the other two. Sakura leaned against the wall with her arms crossed, and waited for him to say his piece.

"I hope whatever you were doing this morning was worth it. Don't ever do that to us again." Yamato said _us_, but she heard _me, _which was fine, the rest of their unit was likely just as indignant but she'd known him the longest and could least afford his antipathy.

"It was. I dealt with some friction left over from my stay here a couple of years ago, and I couldn't afford to have any of you interfere. After you let Kakashi go out last night against my orders, I wasn't sure if I could trust you to act as second-in-command. You are supposed to uphold my authority," she said.

Yamato shook his head. "I told him to stay out of trouble and if you caught him it was his problem."

"So you did let him out."

"He said he was going to provide back-up if you ran into any problems. I didn't believe there was any reason to restrain him," he explained.

Sakura frowned at him. "Ridiculous insubordination. I thought out of the three of you, you were the one I could depend on most," she said, poking him in the chest. "I understand your need to be cautious, Yamato, but next time obey me. I promise I've taken care of all that tiresome business I had - there won't be any more opaque actions from here on out."

"I'll hold you to your word, sempai."

"Do," she said, and put her hand on his shoulder, looking up at him her expression grave. "Tell me that I can trust you."

His dark eyes held hers, shining like she'd said something very different. "You can, just don't go off alone anymore. I can't help feeling like this place is hostile," he said, and she could swear he was blushing a little.

She nodded, and patted his shoulder as she turned away. "It is - for you. We're going to head up to the entrance and wait for En, I think. We have a long day in front of us and I don't want to start it off by angering the Raikage by being late."

* * *

They were late, though it _wasn't_ their fault.

En, Bee's student, didn't show up until nearly nine, and they were meeting up at one of the auxiliary gates, well away from where they were staying. Sakura had to restrain herself several times from clouting the younger shinobi on the head. He didn't seem to understand how embarrassing it was for them, or perhaps he did and he didn't care – or even worse he'd done it on purpose.

Even if it was only a few minutes, as soon as she saw the Raikage waiting there in his hat and long white robe, she wanted to sink into a hole and die, and pray her ancestors would forgive her. Darui and Shii and a kunoichi Sakura didn't recognize, all stood near Ei in the flat, barren area around a small stone door, looking bored. The corner of Darui's mouth quirked up a little as their eyes met, and she had a fleeting moment of reassurance. Very fleeting.

"YOU'RE LATE!" roared the Raikage, wearing his usual scowl.

En quickly stepped in front, between them and Ei. "I apologize, Raikage-sama, the delay was entirely my fault," said En, kneeling down on one knee on the rough stone in shame. "I-"

The Raikage interrupted before he could elaborate. "Don't make me regret putting you on this assignment, En," he said, his lip curling in disgust and displaying his prominent canines.

Sakura frowned at the news that this troublesome kid was coming with them. He looked about the same age as Kakashi, if shorter. She didn't complain, there was still plenty she didn't know about him, including En's skills.

"I won't, Raikage-sama," En said.

"Go stand with the others," ordered the Raikage, and then he turned his fierce glare onto Sakura. "Haruno Sakura, tell your men to remove their masks."

Her eyes widened in surprise. "But Raikage-sama, they are Tsunade's personal-"

"NO ARGUMENTS!" he said, the volume of his voice making her wince.

She had agreed to acknowledge his authority, but she hadn't thought he'd ask the others to sacrifice their anonymity. Being faceless was important if they wanted to avoid having the price on their heads in the black-market bingo books go up. Kakashi already had a twenty million ryo bounty and he wasn't even old enough to drink legally.

There were psychological reasons too - actions taken while wearing the mask, like assassinations, belonged to the mask, to the Hokage and to Konoha as a whole, not the hand carrying them out. Creating such a partition allowed them to maintain good soldiers who were also relatively sane and willing to take those sorts of missions again.

"May I at least ask why?"

He growled a little at her impertinence. "This mission was meant to find out who killed our Daimyou and eliminate them - but due to pressure from both the Hokage and Mizukage and their superiors via messages sent early this morning, we are to attempt to re-establish the cease-fire as well," he looked extremely displeased about this most recent development.

"The Mizukage?" This was good news. Terumi Mei was much more cool-tempered than the other two kages involved, but no less shrewd. If she could defuse the Raikage's attempt at seeking revenge, all the better.

"Yes, she claims to have certain trade agreements that would be disrupted if an extended conflict were to erupt. Given the weakness of their economy, I doubt they can afford it. If they hadn't lost that particular island in the first place, perhaps they'd be in better straits."

"I see... but-" Sakura tried to say.

"WOMAN, I'M JUST GETTING TO THE POINT!" he shouted, and Sakura's mouth snapped shut. "We're splitting the eight of you into two teams, one for hunting down the assassin, the other for negotiating with the leadership in Noumugakure. Darui will lead the first team, you will lead the other."

Noumugakure must be their hidden village, but Sakura had never heard of it. If they had a hidden village perhaps they held to other customs of the shinobi system. "So, this has become a Shinobi Alliance mission in essence."

"It has," Ei said, crossing his hugely-muscled arms. She noticed he had a different prosthesis today, a thick golden hook with a wicked point at the end of the curve. It made him look even more terrifying if that was remotely possible. "You will be covering for Darui's team, acting as envoys, while they search for more information. Your main job will be to get them to either hand over the killer or inform them that we'll find him ourselves and deal with him. Also, find out how the hell they got through our defenses. The team investigating it in the capital is still baffled. It has to be a new jutsu."

She was curious herself about what technique had been used to kill the Daimyou in such a violent and untraceable manner. "What about the cease-fire?"

"The business with the cease-fire will wait until I'm satisfied that justice has been served," he said, ignoring Sakura's frown. He couldn't expect her to ignore the will of both the Hokage and the Mizukage. She supposed it was a good thing she'd be handling the negotiations instead of him.

Darui spoke up. "Is the Mizukage sending anyone, boss?"

"She is. You will rendezvous with her people when you reach the coast. I'll leave you two to decide how to incorporate them into the mission once you've determined their usefulness," he said derisively, implying they would be of little to no use at all.

"How much do we actually know about the Fading Island, anyway?" asked Shii, grinding his heel against the fine gravel underfoot. Sakura thought that he was either irritated, or troubled at how blind they were going into the mission. She was a little relieved he didn't know more than she did, which was petty, but Shii had liked to hold things like that over her head in the past.

"Not much. It's a closed society, in far more of an extreme capacity than we have ever attempted or known in our villages. What we do know is in the mission files, which you will have a week to review while you travel." The Raikage produced two scrolls from inside one of his voluminous sleeves. He tossed one to Darui and the other to Sakura.

Sakura resisted opening hers, tucking it away in her pouch, though she had many questions. Their teams would be traveling together for a while yet, at least until they reached the island. From there she would have to navigate carefully, though she doubted anything they threw at her could possibly be worse than what the Akatsuki had had to offer.

The Raikage caught her eyes and gestured with his hook. She turned to her men, not hiding her reluctance. "It seems we have no choice. Remove your masks."


	5. Back To The Life

A/N: Sorry this one took so long. I swear if I spent as much time writing as I did looking at fanart on Tumblr and Pixiv this would have been done two weeks ago. Also, the Tiger&Bunny anon meme has been very distracting... Yeah.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Dour old bastard," Kakashi muttered. Kumogakure was behind him, he was well out of earshot; and now that he wasn't in front of the Raikage, he could pull up the black fabric from the neck of his shirt and slip it up over his nose. His mood, while still foul, improved enough with this simple change that he wasn't silently cursing every raindrop that plunked against his hood.

They were traveling in a loose double-diamond formation and soon passed through some of the most inhospitable terrain he'd ever seen; rock formations reminiscent of saw blades and the dentation of various carnivorous beasts; crevices so deep and well-hidden a person could slip down into one and never be seen or heard falling. Treacherous - really that described it best. This storm-scoured elevation was barren of everything but twisted scrub-pine and red and gold lichens and rocky death traps.

Perhaps it was not the best time to be diverting his attention to anything but where he would next place his foot, however, he remained distracted. His body reacted machine-like, reacting and taking cues from the people around him; they were moving at a steady but not punishing pace, bearing hard south, Sakura taking main point. He never fell.

As she ran in front of him he'd catch her scent now and again, intimately mingled with that of another; it made his throat tighten. The preoccupied air that had dominated her behavior for so long, seemed to have evaporated overnight. It wasn't too difficult to deduce what had happened, and he couldn't get it out of his head.

One moment and Kakashi had thought he'd felt a spark, glowing hot, ready to take hold and transform his life, her life forever. There _was_ something there, he _knew_ she'd felt it too. Not even two days later and Sakura had done all but kick him in the face and tell him to fuck off. Then again, what she had done was pretty close to a kick in the face.

His feelings were almost impossible to express, and he didn't put them on display. He didn't have the right to be jealous or angry or even annoyed about anything she'd done - except for that sleep jutsu she'd put on them so that she could have her little tryst. Yamato had already called her out for that, and he seemed satisfied with her excuses. He fought back another surge of anger.

What she'd done to him, made Kakashi think it might be the sort of thing Sasuke referred to as putting someone in their place.

When the Raikage tried to make him go around barefaced while in his ANBU armor, it was like adding insult to injury. The old man might as well have just put a sign on Kakashi's back that said 'Hi, are you interested in picking a fight with Sharingan Kakashi?' because that was what it always came down to, once he was recognized. He had built enough of a reputation that there were people who wanted to fight him, just so they could say they'd fought him. The kid on the other team had given him the eye. He knew that look, the smirking arrogant sneer that said _"Anytime you want, just bring it."_

The sad thing was that he _wanted_ to fight someone anyone next time he got the chance and he couldn't; he'd just be in even deeper shit with Sakura. He didn't dare push her any further – not yet. Holding back was straining him so much, he felt like he was developing a tic on the left side of his face from frowning and holding his tongue.

Kakashi tried to relax, tried to find his center and shove all of his mental anguish to roil behind a closed door in his mind.

Icha Icha Paradise would be such a wonderful thing to drown in at the moment. It was hard to read during their rest periods when it was raining; bad for the paper. It occurred to him that he was going to have to get a back-up set soon; the first set was in pretty rough shape, the first volume bearing loose pages and the third with a big gouge in the spine where he'd used it to block a kunai.

Ahead of him, Sakura's hood blew back and her flag of pink hair whipped out against their gray surroundings, thrusting her again to the forefront of his mind. This was the moment Kakashi realized he was looking forward to the teams splitting up. Being around her was growing increasingly more painful; even if he had to be on a team with Darui, with his reputation for politeness, he wasn't likely to deliberately provoke Kakashi.

The teams the Raikage had split them up into were determined by how he believed their abilities would be best put to use. Personally, Kakashi thought putting both of their healers on one team was a bad call. The Raikage wasn't asking for his opinions though, and Kakashi wasn't about to embarrass Sakura after they'd just lost face for being late. If she wasn't going to say anything, perhaps she understood the Raikage's logic better than Kakashi did.

As things stood, he and Sai would be working with Darui and an attractive kunoichi named Ai who smiled a lot, had long, black curly hair, and was supposed to be skilled as a Sensor. She seemed a bit overeager to set out, and Kakashi noticed that Darui was exasperated with her well before they'd made it past the gate. Kakashi didn't really know what to make of her, but he supposed any further personality quirks would surface when the real work began.

On the other team Sakura would have Yamato, which Kakashi was thankful for since he was so level-headed. From Kumo there was Shii, another Sensor, whom he'd heard was one of the top three jounin in Kumogakure. The one who worried Kakashi was En, the fourth member of their group. He knew nothing about him other than the fact that he carried two swords and presumably could use them, and that he'd made them late.

Kakashi wondered if he could get away with pulling En into a little scuffle so he could get a sense of his capabilities. He wouldn't pick a fight, but he wouldn't hold back from one either. For now he would have to be content to seethe quietly and wait for the right moment.

XOXOXOXOXOX

His opportunity came on the third night of their journey, the day of which was similar to those before it, uneventful but for the leaden skies, grumbling and flashing above. Kakashi ran and jumped and sometimes edged carefully through it uncomplaining, bearing the weariness that accompanied being soggy, mildly depressed and in unfamiliar territory.

He noted with bitter satisfaction that Sakura kept her promise to him; she wore the cool, unflinching face of an efficient professional ninja; she was focused and clear-eyed – this was the kunoichi that other shinobi ran away from rather than engage. This was the woman he damn near worshiped.

As they moved out of the jagged heights of the mountains and into the gentler forested hills, Sakura never made a single remark to him that was not related to the mission. This was how it was supposed to be, and yet he couldn't stop thinking about her, how he wanted her to take him aside. If she'd say something, anything that let him know she needed him. Kakashi knew it was idiotic but the feelings were there and wouldn't dissipate; like a man diffusing a bomb, he was looking anxiously to find a way to redirect them.

Once the sun was so low they could no longer see their shadows because the remaining dusk light couldn't penetrate the broad leaves of sycamore and oak and cottonwood, they made camp. Or at least bedded down - having a full cabin with a firepit and chimney wasn't exactly enduring the wilderness. The Kumo shinobi still seemed gobsmacked at Yamato's peculiar and useful talent of instantly fabricating a sturdy shelter, though they certainly didn't complain.

Stripped of concern about the wet weather, biting insects or random roving carnivores at night, anyone in their party who didn't pass out right after the evening meal socialized in relative comfort. Over the past two evenings, while Sakura sat at the firepit going over the mission intelligence with the senior members of their party, Kakashi had been working on how to engage En.

Kakashi as a rule did not pick fights, but he had managed to draw out someone else's ire on purpose in the past. Without hesitation he'd beat them down when they inevitably lost their temper and came after him. He couldn't play that sort of game here, and didn't particularly want to.

Everyone was settled down around the fire at the moment, either eating or preparing to – Yamato and Shii had each managed to catch a couple of hares today, and skinned and cleaned these were roasting over the fire. Kakashi took the space next to En, who looked at him curiously but without hostility; they were both staring at the spits and salivating.

"Wanna spar?" he asked, keeping his voice low, trying to keep it between them. "Winner gets the other's portion of meat."

"Where at?" En's dark eyes brightened with interest, and he put a packet of dried apricots back in his pouch.

"Just outside. It's not raining right now, I think."

"Still muddy and dark though. I'm game, but what are you gonna tell the taicho?"

"We're just going to-"

He was interrupted by Sakura and Shii both standing up, glaring at each other over the large, square firepit like a pair of angry cats.

"You've got to be kidding," said Shii, hands out in a helpless, angry gesture.

"It'll be better if we go in smaller groups," said Sakura, her voice firm.

Shii shook his head at her. "I just don't think we should take separate boats - it's asking for trouble. If we don't make the same landing we won't have any idea if the other group made it!"

"Why would we make the same landing? We're going to completely different parts of the country and speed is of the essence!" Sakura said. She was not quite yelling, but speaking louder than necessary and shaking the hand she was holding her open scroll in at Shii.

"Cool it you two. Sit down already." Darui said, not looking up at them but turning the spits so the meat cooked evenly.

Shii settled back next to the fire, crossing his arms. "You agree with her?" he said. Sakura made a disgusted face but kept silent and sat down again with her maps and her notes with her back to them.

Darui shrugged. "Right now it's a solid plan. Being able to adapt is part of the job."

"I still think we need more information," said Yamato. "Maybe the Kiri nin will have some suggestions."

"Darui just said that five minutes ago, Yamato," Sakura snapped over her shoulder. "We already have their intel-" was the last thing Kakashi heard as he and En stole outside, away from the bickering. If this sort of discussion was going to go on into the night, they wouldn't be missed for a few minutes of light sparring.

Kakashi wasn't sure if that was what it would turn out to be, but they couldn't use their biggest attacks in this kind of setting, anyway. It might seem cocky, but he had no intention of even uncovering the sharingan.

"What do you want to do for light?" En said. There were traps and alarms set on the perimeter of the cabin, but as long as they stayed within fifteen feet of the walls they wouldn't activate them.

"I've got a flare," he said, reaching for his pouch.

"No, wait, I know," En said, and bit his thumb, did the seals, and slammed his hand down on the ground. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!"

What appeared in front of them was possibly the largest beetle Kakashi had ever seen. It had red and yellow markings on it's head, a black body and long segmented antennae. The end of its abdomen was glowing yellow-green just enough that they were no longer in near pitch darkness. Not just a beetle, a giant firefly.

"Hi, Hotamaru," En said to the beetle.

"What's up, boss?" he clicked and hissed.

"Can you stand over there and glow for a few minutes? We're going to spar."

"Will do," said Hotamaru, saluting En with one of his front legs and backing up against the wall of the cabin. There weren't any windows on this side, though the door wasn't far, the people inside wouldn't see the glow.

"I know what the stakes are, do we want some kind of handicap?"

Kakashi tapped his chin. "Let's see. Taijutsu and bladed weapons only, I think. Best of three, blood allowed but nothing that gets the healers involved," Kakashi said. He took a kunai out and scratched a circle in the eerily-lit ground, which was rain-sodden and layered with years of dead leaves and moss.

"Right. You really think you wanna come at me with a sword?" En said, standing to one side of the circle, his hands folded in the symbol for "Combat".

"I was just going to use this kunai," Kakashi said, knocking the dirt off the end of the kunai on the bottom of his sandal as he took his place across from him. He put it back in his pack and then put his hands together as well, two forefingers up.

"You're really full of yourself," said En.

"It's not bragging if you can do it."

En's swords were out and slashing at him before he finished speaking and Kakashi got down, grasping for a weapon to block with, going for En's legs which were moving as artfully as his hands were with the blades. Kakashi managed to time it just right and sweep his legs, but En twisted up at the last second and they both ended up on the ground each with a blade to their throat.

"First one's a tie looks like, asshole," En said, and they broke apart.

"Keep talking like that and I'll drive your head into the ground." he threatened, though it was empty. He didn't want to hurt En, but he did want to win.

"Big words skinny guy," En said, edging around the circle, swords at the ready.

"Is that really the best insult you can come up with?" Kakashi said, and feigned rushing him, waited for him to swing, backed up, flipped backwards, rolled and moving as fast as he was able without ninjutsu, slipped behind En and slid his kunai under his ear, accidentally slicing a few strands of his thick black hair.

"Point." Kakashi said and jumped back to the edge of the circle.

"Nice. Let's see if you can get through this." En started to do his sword dance again, though this time he seemed more focused. He was treating him like a serious opponent, Kakashi realized with pleasure. It was a shame they couldn't go all out.

They circled each other for what seemed like a long time. Kakashi watched En's feet, and En watched his.

"So why were you late to come get us that day?" Kakashi said, bored but genuinely curious.

"Well I wasn't taking a long shit. What the hell business is it of yours?"

Kakashi's eyebrow twitched. This guy possibly had a fouler mouth than Naruko and Sai combined. "Personally, I was embarrassed. I'm pretty sure Sakura-sensei was livid."

"Yeah well sorry, something came up. Heh, your teacher is fucking hot, by the way." En said.

"Please don't forget she's our superior officer. And she could kill you with just her finger."

"Seriously, you wouldn't tap that? Because damn!"

"Are you always this vulgar?" He also wondered how this guy managed to figure out the one way to infuriate him so quickly.

"Only when my dinner is at stake," he said, laughing. "You know I heard a rumor about your sensei and Darui-taicho-"

"Already know about it, don't bother," Kakashi snapped.

"Damn you're uptight. I guess I'd be pissed off too if my hot teacher was banging someone from-"

Kakashi jumped up fast and kicked him in the middle of the chest, knocking En down and out of the circle. En managed to get a good slice on both of his arm guards, the metal plate almost cut in two on the left one. That was going to hurt later.

"I told you to drop it," Kakashi said, feeling blood welling on his arm. "Shit."

En coughed and sat up, rubbing his chest. "You've got a short fuse, Kakashi-san."

He didn't, usually. "Maybe. Though it looks like I get extra rations tonight. Guess I'll be happy enough with that." Kakashi regretted that he'd lost his cool, forgetting one of the earliest lessons his father had given him. It was a mantra any good shinobi kept to in even the most harrowing situations: cool head, clear mind.

"Want some help with that? I didn't mean to cut you – you came at me so fast. Come over here Hotamaru." He looked genuinely upset that he'd injured him.

"We were using live steel, it was inevitable. That's a really big bug," Kakashi mumbled, as the waist-high firefly scuttled closer. He unbuckled his damaged arm guard; the gash wasn't too deep but blood was dripping off onto he ground. He'd certainly had worse injuries.

"Yeah, my whole clan has a pact with the Beetle King."

"The Tefuda clan?" he'd heard of the Kumo Beetle Corps before, but he'd never seen one of the insects.

En nodded. "Do you really have a Sharingan under there? I thought you would at least try to use it."

He lifted his hitae-ate for a moment, let En see a flash of red, his scar, and pulled it back down again. "It was a gift. It's not something I use lightly." That and it sucked up his chakra like a greedy child with a bottle of lychee juice.

"I see. Here, hold out your arm, I've got some first aid stuff in my pack." En produced a little white box with a Kumo symbol on the front, and took out a tight roll of gauze and some athletic tape.

Kakashi pulled off his glove carefully, annoyed at the bloody rent in it, and let him apply a rough but adequate field dressing. He was spoiled from Sakura patching him up, he wasn't sure if she'd do it after he was injured so stupidly.

He counted all the things that it cost him for losing his temper – blood, pain, washing and mending a glove, a piece of broken armor, a certain amount of humiliation. The only good thing was that the tension in his shoulders and chest was gone. So in a way it was an even exchange – he'd gotten what he wanted out of this.

"Thanks," he said, and glared at the back of his arm as if it had betrayed him by getting cut.

"So what's the deal with your sensei anyway? You sure got worked up."

"It's complicated," he said, wishing En would drop it or shut up; unfortunately, he was the talkative type.

"Okay..." En's dark eyes flicked towards the entrance of the cabin. "Well, I guess we should go see if they're done arguing. One of them is going to come looking for us if we stay out here too long."

"We should. You can keep your dinner, by the way. I'm not really that hungry."

XOXOXOXOXOX

Sakura and Shii were still disagreeing an hour later, though not quite so loudly. The pair were drinking tea and kneeling over a map of the coast and the chain of islands that paralleled it in the southern sea. They seemed to have settled on how to approach the island, if not on their terminus.

The others were sensibly in their bedrolls and would have at least six hours of sleep to show for it. Kakashi wished he could just pass out and find sweet oblivion for a few moments, but his arm was throbbing. He was going to have to have Sakura heal it at some point before they parted, or it was going to become a problem.

"Fine, fine, you're probably right. I'm not totally happy with it but if we land there, we have a place to retreat to. As long as nothing has changed in that spot in the past fifteen years," Sakura said, her voice pitched low and sounding hoarse, conceding.

"You're finally agreeing with me?" Shii said.

"Not entirely. I'm still of the opinion we shouldn't even be going in unannounced - if at all. If we don't die to the chakra manifestation that haunts the fog shroud around the island, the Wall of Iron Thorns is going to be a pain -"

"Three members of our group have the ability to conjure a flying mount," Shii said, holding up three of his fingers. "Sai in particular can make more than one as he did several times during the war and if I'm remembering right you have a few owl friends. If things get hairy we can go airborne."

Sakura's mouth stretched into a tired frown and she shook her head. "It's too long a distance over water for that. We'd have to abandon the boats and then how would we get back?"

"I'm sure there are plenty of them in the area –"

"See this is why I think we need more time. If we stop off at this town here – Sajimachi – we can hire a boat to pick us up later. Then we won't have to worry about whether the locals like us and end up having to steal transportation," said Sakura.

"So where do you propose we meet up with them?" Shii said, yawning widely behind his hand. Kakashi yawned reflexively watching him, though Sakura didn't.

"The ruins of Ganshoushi – we can wait on one of the reef islands there and none of the Fog people will follow us."

Shii put his hand in the air palm up in frustration, whipping it back. "There is no sailor in the world who is going to be willing to get that close to that place."

"The Hokage gave us a pretty big purse," Sakura said, patting her bag beside her.

"Not enough money in the world. That whole area is blighted," said Shii, glaring at her. His tone was on the edge of accusing - as if the Fire Country had something to do with it and she was the incarnation of all that their land represented. Kakashi had figured out a while ago that Shii disliked anything and everything that had to do with Konoha. He probably had his reasons, though it was never a good idea to act like every person of a certain people or place held the same beliefs and traditions. Small-mindedness was what Sakura called it.

"You can thank the Whirpool Country for leaving that behind – and they paid for it with their own destruction. I am not denying the danger. Whatever danger is lurking there it's no less than any other part of this mission," Sakura said, vehement though she was slouching and weary. Kakashi could see her fingers raking the floorboards next to where she sat and he was surprised she hadn't gouged divots in the floor.

Shii sighed hard and rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefingers. "We can run it by Darui in the morning. I think my eyes are starting to shut on their own."

Sakura nodded. "Sleep well," she said as he shuffled over to his bedroll. She stood up and stretched for a moment and then walked over to where Kakashi lay. Leaning down, she gave him a droll grin. "Was the conversation really so boring?" She gestured with her chin at his injured arm, which he held cradled against his chest.

"Uh, no," he said, resisting the urge to squirm under her scrutiny.

She sat down beside him and tugged his arm over towards her, making him wince. "You're always welcome to contribute suggestions, you know. You see a lot of things other people miss, so don't think that you can't talk because you're a junior member of the team."

"I'll keep that in mind," he said, nervous, feeling his heart speed up at her touch. She peeled off the bandage with care and made some soft tut-tut sounds over the slice in his arm, before she started healing it. He needed this and he didn't.

"Do. And don't go getting injured so casually again. You're going to need every drop of blood, every measure of chakra you've got on this mission. The only thing that makes me believe we can be successful is that there _was_ a previous treaty."


	6. Everything Hits At Once

"No sign of them yet," said Sakura, her lips pressing together in an anxious frown.

Gravel crunched under their feet where they stood on the edge of a tall, limestone bluff, at the approximate coordinates specified in their orders. The bluff overlooked the blue-green expanse of the Southern Sea; staring out over her shoulder, Darui leaned on his cleaver sword while she used a pair of collapsible, low-reflection binoculars to search the narrow beach. The pair of Kiri shinobi they were supposed to meet were due to appear at any moment, the sun nearly at its apex.

The remainder of their teams were taking a breather a bit further back in the woods – Darui had cut a trail from there to here through the thick, thorny brambles and winding vines. She supposed she could have taken Kakashi or Shii along to do the dirty work of making a path – both with the skill to make lightning-infused blades, but this would be the last time she would get to see Darui alone. Perhaps the very last, if their mission went as sour as she thought it had a high probability of doing.

"Maybe they'll come floating on a jellyfish or something," she said, gesturing with her hand trying to mimic a jellyfish's undulations.

"I have seen a Kiri nin summon jellyfish – or their tentacles anyway. That wasn't a pleasant fight," Darui said with a chuckle.

Sakura grimaced, looking at the the long barren shoreline not at him; wavelets brushed across the rounded white stones rhythmically, like a million little dark hands pulling the land slowly under. "Is it true that half of their village is underwater? I've never been there."

"I haven't, but Shii has. He says at least a quarter of it is pools and underwater habitations. They must have a lot of amphibious citizens. Maybe the Hokage will send you there as an ambassador next," he said.

"If we survive this."

He looked at her askance, like he expected her words but was still disappointed to hear them. "Don't be so negative. If you do your job and I do mine, everything will come together so easy you'll think this was a dull assignment."

"Your confidence is inspiring. I can see why they put you in charge," she said, grinning back at him. Maybe she shouldn't have teased him, because his whole bearing changed and he moved closer, putting his hands on her shoulders from behind. She was wearing her flack vest, so the warmth she knew was there couldn't permeate, but it was the closest thing to an embrace she'd allow at this point and he knew it.

"You know what's more inspiring?" he said, low, almost in her ear.

"What's that?" she said, almost whispering. The fierceness in his voice made her stomach do some unneeded acrobatics. Sakura had to gather up every reserve of stoic propriety she had, not to turn around. She _could_ behave like a professional while in uniform, as hard of a time as she'd seemed to have been having with it lately.

"The thought that if I screw this up, I might not get to see you again."

"Darui-"

"Sorry, but you said it yourself. This is going to be a tough one."

Sakura raised the binoculars to her eyes again. She was sure they'd both had this conversation before, with other friends or different lovers, all dead. "It is," she said, which was honest and simple and sounded less foolish than demanding _don't die_.

A discontent silence trailed on between them for a while, and neither of them broke it. Sakura was glad; anything more from him would have lit her temper, and she'd end up either raging or crying. She kept scanning the beach for some sign of the other shinobi.

"I see them," she said, finally, offering him the binoculars.

He reached out and took them from her, looking out over her shoulder. "Is that a-"

"A gigantic crab, it must be the size of a house. One of the riders looks really familiar."

"Which one, the glasses guy or the blonde lady?" he asked.

"The guy with the huge sword and the glasses. He's one of the Seven Swordsmen such as they are, I think his name was Choujuro."

Darui handed the binoculars back, nodding. "Ah yeah, that guy's quite a powerhouse. Looks like he grew a bit. The other one must be pretty good, too, to have a summon like that. Want to flip a coin on who gets the sword and who gets the crab?"

Sakura laughed. "I think the teams would be more balanced if I got the swordsman. You've already got Kakashi, and he's worth at least two of any of them."

"Heh, I can only hope you think as highly of me. I'll take care of your favorite pupil well enough, I think," Darui said. He hitched his sword up in such a way that it folded at the hinges in the middle of the huge blade as he swung it, then slid it into the thick scabbard on his back.

"What makes you think he's my favorite?" she said over her shoulder, uneasy, as they hurried down the neatly cut path in the abundant greenery. Sakura didn't give him _that_ much attention, she thought. Well, maybe she did tend to look to him first when something needed to be done. She couldn't help it. Kakashi was so damn competent, and reliable, unlike her other two students.

"Just a guess," he laughed, dodging an oversized fern frond she'd whipped back at him, before it hit his face.

Once they rejoined their teams, their subordinates upon seeing them began scurrying to break camp. Sakura caught herself looking for Kakashi, and realized it couldn't have been that hard for Darui to pick out her predilection. Her eyes met Kakashi's and she looked away before she could see anything she didn't want to, turning instead to her second-in-command.

"Yamato, go out ahead and greet our contacts. They should be waiting on the beach," she ordered. They didn't want to be mistaken for ambushers and lose time trying to defend against an unnecessary attack.

"Yes, ma'am." Yamato said, with a nod and disappeared into the greenery.

Soon, the rest of them were climbing down the sheer cliff with what nimbleness chakra-enhanced feet and fingers offered. The rocky stretch of beach where the Kirigakure representatives stood, was part of a natural cove. The water was clear enough that she could see fish venturing back to the shallows in the giant crab's wake, while green-black seaweed fluttered and flailed in clumps with the motion of the water.

As they closed in, Yamato waved, making the all-clear gesture in the process. The two shinobi with him didn't have their weapons drawn, so Sakura decided it was safe to approach.

"Right on time," she said. "I trust the Mizukage is well."

It was general knowledge among the higher ranks of the shinobi world that the recently-engaged Mizukage was pregnant. The wedding, however, wouldn't be for another six months, right after she had the child. All of the Kages were going to be in attendance for the ceremony, since Terumi Mei insisted on a lavish spectacle. Sakura deeply suspected Tsunade intended to drag her along - if she still happened to be alive by then.

"Of course she is, commander. I'm more concerned for everyone around her," he said, adjusting his glasses, as awkward as ever.

"Good to see you, Choujuro-san," she grinned. "Call me captain - the war is over."

He nodded. "Let's hope it stays that way. I guess, I should introduce my partner."

The whip-thin blonde woman jumped off the back of her spiny crab companion, and landed next to Choujuro, tugging at her pale gray, ribbed sweater to straighten it. "I'm Tsumami. Pleased to finally meet you in person, Sakura-taichou."

Sakura nodded. "What is your specialty, if I may ask? I see your friend there."

"That's Kimuzu. He and I have been friends for a while. I'm best with ranged weapons, but I think you'll find me well-rounded as a kunoichi. The Mizukage sent me more for my connections with the people of Noumugakure more than anything else."

"The Mizukage is wise, perhaps I'll take you with me, instead," Sakura said. She was already making a mental list of things she wanted to ask the other woman about the shinobi of the Fading Island. She looked over to Darui, who gave her a small nod. "Darui and I are splitting the group into two teams. I think you'll be more useful with my team if you have knowledge of the people of the island. As much as I would like to have your sword Hiramekarei covering my back, Choujuro."

"We are at your disposal in whatever capacity we are needed, until the issue is resolved," Choujuro said, echoing Sakura's own words to the Raikage.

"Good to know. I look forward to working with you," said Darui, nodding to Sakura, who let him take over to address their group more generally. "Our first stop is Sajimashi, about three miles up the coast. We'll get supplies, transportation and maybe more intelligence, then we go our separate ways. Once we're on the water anything can happen. They know we're coming, but not when, not how, so expect powerful sentries." He paused, to let Sakura to explain what they had discussed the night before.

She took her cue, and continued. "The Fading Island has multiple protections in place. First of all, it is surrounded by a dense fog which is patrolled by a creature similar to a tailed beast. Historically, it stays on the western side on the chain of smaller barrier islands. My team will be sailing for the southwestern side, Darui's team will be going to the southeast, so it is more likely my team will have a run in with the creature.

"The second line of defense is an ancient barrier made of giant metal spikes. It is not well-maintained, but still protects most of the beaches and otherwise undefended parts of the coastline. The main harbor is essentially the only area that is explicitly open, but it is also the most well-patrolled."

"So how are we going to get anyone to take us there?" asked En. "Can't I just fly there on Hoshimaru?"

She'd been waiting for someone to ask why they weren't using flying mounts, since they had them available. "No, at the distance you'll be traveling over the water it would be inadvisable. Also, we're not taking a straight path, so it's easy to get lost in the fog, easy to get separated. If I thought flight was a more viable option I'd gladly summon my owls to carry us there. On the other hand we can hire two ships, each with an experienced crew that will see us safe to shore," she said.

The most important factor in actually getting to the island, was having a navigator who could get a ship through the fog unscathed. Her friend Kuroku had several.

"You already have someone in mind, I guess," said Kakashi.

Sakura smiled, remembering that Kakashi had never been on one of _those_ missions. "Of course. I have a contact who owns a small shipping company. He has worked with both Kumo and Konoha in the past."

"You're talking about those fucking pirates, aren't you?" growled Yamato, who had worked with her often enough to come in contact with some of the more interesting people she'd befriended.

"They are not pirates, they're sanctioned privateers who take side jobs," Sakura countered. She wasn't particularly fond of traveling by sea either, but when it was necessary she liked to have someone she trusted get her there. Even if they might be a bit rough around the edges.

"Well even if the person who owns the ship isn't, it doesn't mean the crew isn't half made up of lice-ridden, dirty freebooters," he replied, disgusted at the prospect of sailing with them again.

Sakura gave him a withering look, and started walking down the beach. "Make a raft and float beside us if you've got a problem with it. "Let's go," she ordered over her shoulder, and started running down the beach towards the small coastal town ahead.

This was no time for Yamato to start acting priggish, especially when everyone needed to be confident that they would cross safely. Perhaps it was her own fault for not projecting that she felt assured in the mission's success. She'd told Kakashi she'd get herself together, and now more than ever it was imperative.

"We need to get this over with fast, you know. I don't miss this year's chuunin exams," Sakura called behind her, as everyone else caught up. She'd won a lot of money off of Tsunade during the last round, and they were coming up in two weeks; she didn't intend to be on this mission longer than one.

* * *

Meeting up with Kuroku outside the bayside warehouse, which also held his office and was his base of operations, Sakura was pleased to see he hadn't changed at all. No new scars crossed his weathered brown face and, as always, his black cat Tama lounged around his shoulders.

Kuroku smiled to see her, showing off the gaps in his wide grin. If they were successful, he'd have first dibs on any new trade going out of the islands – and also the other half of his advance from Konoha and Kumo. This was powerful incentive to put forth his greatest effort in getting them where they needed to go.

"I don't think you've met Darui," she said, as Kuroku walked with her back out to the docks where the rest of her soon to be split unit was waiting. The two men shook hands, and she could tell by Darui's expression that he felt wary towards her seedy-looking contact.

"My co-captain here says you can get us to the Fading Island," he said, allowing some skepticism to enter his voice.

Kuroku nodded, reaching up to scratch his cat's ears while the cat licked his cheek. "Both ships are outfitted with the most advanced navigation systems available – not stolen, I assure you – and if those fail we have a couple of fellows who hail from the far south, with some interesting abilities."

Sakura suspected the abilities he spoke of were similar to the chakra manipulation skills of a shinobi, even if they were not called as such. There were places around the world that did not use the shinobi system, and many of them weren't on any map that she'd ever seen. "I'm certain you've taken pains to make this go smoothly," she said, half at Kuroku, half at Darui who seemed like he was about to ask whether he had missing-nin on board either of his ships. Darui looked at her like he didn't entirely approve, but let it go.

"That I have. If you can think of anything I might have missed, of course I'd love to have your suggestions," Kuroku said, nodding and gesturing towards a black-sided ship tied up on the dock closest to them. She could see the crew doing last-minute checks and a final load of supplies being carted on deck via the boarding ramp. She couldn't think of anything, but she knew she probably would as soon as she was out to sea.

"No, I trust you." she said, and gave him her best 'I'll kill you and everyone you love, if you screw me over' smile.

His face blanched, and he made placating gestures with his hands. "And I know better than to challenge that trust. You've been a good customer in the past, Sakura-san. As risky as it is to attempt, I'm inclined to favor this outing."

She laughed, gesturing to the hilt of her tanto. "Outing? I suppose if that makes it sound nicer in your logbook."

Trying to reassure her, Kuroku made a little shrug, more with his bushy eyebrows than his shoulders. "We've traveled both routes before – under different circumstances, of course. The journey itself should hold few surprises, with what we know now about current conditions around the island. There's nothing to worry about until you are on land."

"I hope you're right," she said, and did what she could to believe him. There were so many ways it could go wrong, and she had a terribly creative mind for possible disasters.

The vessels that Kuroku chose for them for this voyage, were a pair of steel-hulled, steam-powered sloops, that looked like they could be rigged with sails if needed. The one Sakura would board was named the Kurohitomi; she'd never been on it before, but it seemed sound and well-crewed. Counter to Yamato's fears, the majority of the men and women working around them looked tidy and were polite. Kuroku was treating this as a business venture and had recruited people he trusted to represent him.

Sakura spent as little time as she could manage on goodbyes with the other half of their group, as they prepared to embark. She tried not to even look at any of them, though she knew Kakashi had been attempting to get her attention with that flat, annoyed glare he was so good at pulling. If he intended to give her trouble when they met up again, so be it. She would be glad they both survived for him to complain to her.

As he passed her to board, Darui squeezed her shoulder, and that was that, they were gone. There was a stone in her gut for a long time after, but she managed to keep her eyes on the opposite horizon, once she and her team boarded and the ship pulled up anchor. It was the only way she was going to keep from punching a hole in the deck.

They was nearing the halfway point to the other side of the island, by the time Sakura finally managed to relax enough to move from the spot she'd claimed against the starboard rail, towards the front of the ship. She sought out her small cabin below deck and tried to nap for a time, but was too restless and unused to the motion of the ship. With nothing better to do, once she gave up - since Tsumami was napping too, and Yamato had taken to some isolated corner to be irritable in - she went back to her original post.

Around the ship, the climate had already shifted though the sea was calm. The murky and muting presence of the thick fog was starting to set in. Everything became clammy and cool to the touch - the metal of the rail, the cloth of her shirt, her own skin. Sakura tried to restrain her nervousness, but it was hard when she couldn't see very far. She allowed a brief thought about Darui's team, which was taking a different and shorter course, east and then south to the northernmost tip of the island.

Darui, Kakashi and Sai and the rest would likely reach their destination by nightfall, provided they didn't meet any resistance. She hoped they were safe, but she wouldn't know for certain for at least three days. This was about as long as it would take Darui's team to cross the island on foot, once they'd completed their first objective - and if none of them were injured. At that point, they were meant to find her team in the Hidden Fog Village and back them up.

Though the ship they were on was fast and light and had a capable captain and crew, her own team might not reach the port for another forty-eight hours. The port city they sought was called Hokuheki and according to her maps was less than an hour from the Fading Island's hidden village. She hoped they could enter peaceably.

"Careful, if you lean out too far, you might fall over the edge," said Shii, from behind her.

She turned to face him, smirking like she'd known he was there. "You wouldn't push me would you?" It would be dark soon, making the conditions for a rescue difficult, if she couldn't extricate herself from the water. It might be hard to swim, too, with a kunai sticking in her back.

"Never. Darui wouldn't forgive me if I let you be eaten by a shark," he said, mirroring her expression and joining her at the rail.

"I don't think sharks are the problem. More like huge guardian monsters."

"Maybe not, I haven't sensed anything yet in or around the fog," he said, his tone more neutral.

She inclined her head, pleased that he was confiding in her. Even if they didn't get along, he would be foolish to withhold information from her. "We still have days to go. The ship won't even reach the barrier islands until morning. Keep looking."

"I will. I wish Tsumami or En were sensors, then we could set up shifts," Shii admitted. Another strong sensor on their team would have been useful on this mission, but not essential.

"We were only assigned two sensors, so Ai had to go with Darui," she replied. From his expression, Shii didn't seem to like being shrugged off, and was clearly upset he didn't get to go with his best friend. He never was as easygoing as Darui, and it was one of the reasons she'd been at odds with him from the day they'd met.

"With something like that monster, it won't take much ability to detect. Any strong shinobi could do it," he suggested.

"Are you saying I should take second shift?" she asked, annoyed.

"I would like to sleep at some point."

He was right, but it was hard for her to concede to him in anything. Once again she had to force her stubborn mind to focus on the success of the mission and not her unruly feelings. Then again, there was another option. "Yamato might be a better choice. He's extremely sensitive to chakra shifts, even if he's not classified as a sensor." Which was true enough. Sakura had always thought that Yamato could have been a top-grade healer if it was the discipline he'd been attracted to.

Shii snorted like she'd said something funny.

"What?" she asked, when he didn't explain himself.

"That guy," he laughed. "You really treat him like a dog, I've noticed. What did he do to get on your shit list?"

Her eyes widened, and she had to bite her tongue for a moment so as not to yell. "I have no idea what you're talking about," Sakura said, frowning enough that she could practically feel lines forming in her forehead. Yamato worked with her gladly, as far as she was aware; even if they aggravated each other on occasion, she didn't dislike him - quite the opposite. If Shii didn't like being under her command, he was going to have to try a different tactic to get her to retaliate.

"It's only an observation. All your team members seem to take abuse from you, though he gets it the worst."

Angered, but managing to smooth her face back to an unperturbed mask, Sakura leaned closer to him. "I'm not going to fight with you, Shii. I need you to work with me as much as possible. Personal feelings are not as important as this mission, and I'd appreciate it if you could at least pretend to be civil until we're on our way back."

"Like I said, it was just an observation. Though I wonder if one day you'll try to get Darui to defer to you like that, too," he said.

"I don't treat Yamato better or worse than I do any of my other subordinates, not that it's yours to judge. Darui is my equal, and I respect him as such," she managed to say calmly, instead of throwing him out into the monster-infested water. "You will keep your opinions of me, or anyone else to yourself from this point on, Shii. The only things I want to hear out of your mouth had best be about the mission, or I will send you back to Kumo alone and we will both suffer the consequences."

"Very well," he said. It was strange, but something in his demeanor seemed to shift a little, as if he'd developed even the tiniest grain of respect for her, for standing her ground.

"Now, you're smart enough to understand that we're trying to do two things that are at complete odds with each other – achieve justice for your Daimyo's murder and draw up a peace agreement with the Hidden Fog Village," she said, keeping her eyes on him. Fog roiled around the ship, thickened to the point it was possible to see the ship cutting through, flowing across her vision, wrapping back around.

Shii nodded, gripping the rail and leaning back, like he were doing an exercise. "I agree it's absurd. What are you going to do to get them to work with us then?"

"I'm still thinking about it. To be honest, I can't know until I meet up with the head of their village and I know what kind of person they are. I can be hopeful that they will understand we are trying to limit the conflict. I don't want there to be any unnecessary casualties – and our party absolutely can not attack first. Even if Darui's group has already created a hostile situation. This is where I need you to cooperate with me the most, Shii," Sakura said.

"I will do my best, taichou. You're taking a big risk, though. The shinobi there are legendary – it might be deadly to hold back," he said. She didn't hear anything mocking in his voice when he called her by her rank, and was relieved.

"I'll keep that in mind. Let me know when you want to rest. I'm going to see if Tsumami is awake yet and see what her connection to the Fading Island is." Sakura was only too eager to get away from Shii, and it had to be significant information that the Mizukage would send someone as strong as Tsumami. She hoped it was more than the general knowledge she'd gleaned on her own, while she was preparing for the mission.

Before she could turn to head back below deck, Sakura sensed a flare of chakra and was momentarily blinded by Shii's lightning jutsu flashing over her shoulder. This was followed by an inhuman screech and a thick, wide-ranging splash. She could hear something flailing in the fog-shadowed water below.

"What the hell was that?" she yelled, ducking against the solid side of the hull below the rail.

Shii was on one knee looking around. "I don't know, but it came out of nowhere."

"Thanks," Sakura said, and meant it.

One of the sailors called out an alarm on the other side of the deck. "Flash squid, fore starboard! All hands at the ready! Defend the ship!"

"Don't mention it. Really," Shii said, as he gained a distant look to his face that told her he was sensing for more of the creatures.

Sakura unsheathed her tanto and looked over the edge. Faintly, she could make out something writhing, pushing the fog back and slapping against the side of the ship. "I think it's coming back up!"

"I know! Stay back, it might teleport again. It feels like more are coming. Twenty or thirty of them, maybe more than that!" he yelled, as armed sailors swarmed the deck.

"Shit." Sakura looked around for the rest of her squad. Yamato was nowhere in sight and neither was Tsumami. En had his swords out, and was looking around frantically for the threat. "I'm going to go back up En," she called to Shii.

A creature that looked like a huge, winged squid, with rubbery skin the color of lead and old bruises, dragged it's tentacles on the deck between them and a group of armed sailors as she moved.

As she dodged it and made the leap to portside, Sakura could see a few of the sailors preparing some sort of chakra technique, though they weren't using ninjutsu as she understood it. Someone else on board turned on floodlights, which didn't dispel the fog but made useful shadows outlining where the squids were above them. She watched as they teamed up to slay one of the creatures, and she could tell they'd dealt with these things before.

A squid came down right next to her, and without hesitation she lashed out with her tanto and jumped back as black liquid shot out of it. Several tentacles flopped to the deck, and the creature screeched and disappeared. It was quickly replaced with another. En was almost behind her, and she could sense him starting to panic, his blades were steady though and she gave him room to work, prepared to dump her chakra into a big jutsu if either of them took a hit - squids possessed very sharp beaks.

The fighting became so intense for a moment she thought the ship might be overwhelmed. Also, to her horror, she was unable to help at least two of the crew members as they were disarmed. Screaming, they were pulled up and off the deck, only to disappear in the slimy grasp of a flash squid.

She tried hard not to think about their fates. All Sakura could do was keep slashing and focusing her chakra into her punches and kicks and keep an eye on her teammates. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Yamato using his wood jutsu to fence himself off and sending out runners to pierce the squids and then wrap them up with strangling vines. Then Tsumami fought her way past Sakura, and she finally got to see part of the other woman's arsenal - Tsumami held her hand before her before her mouth and out shot a jet of superheated water, cooking one of the squids alive – and unfortunately scalding anyone too close by with the excess water splashing back.

The sailors without special abilities did their best to use the weapons they had at hand – swords and spears, harpoons and ropes. She really didn't want it all to end here, before the mission could even begin. It was time to get out the big guns, though her strongest technique would use up at least a quarter of her chakra. She had the opening though, and started doing the seals for a massive fire jutsu.

Then, as fast as they had appeared and before she could get off her big technique, the swarm of airborne, tentacled beasts vanished into the darkening fog. Quite a number of their slick, mottled corpses littered the deck; one flopped half-dead towards the fog-hidden water until a sailor with a club dispatched it. Sakura was covered in ink and squid guts, but otherwise unharmed.

Turning, she could see En and Tsumami already helping push the mounds of tentacles and flash squid parts overboard. Tsumami had summoned a crab, and as it followed behind her, it snacked on the chopped off bits of their attackers. She looked for Shii, but there were so many people on deck it was hard to find him at first. After a moment she saw him kneeling down healing an injured sailor.

Now where was Yamato? She could see the products of his jutsu, long woody tendrils of the vines and various quickly sprouted constructions he'd made. She followed his handiwork around to the other side of the bridge and found him laying unconscious on the deck, while a pair of sailors pulled off the remains of the flash squid he was entangled with. She could see blood.

"Tenzou!" she cried out, disregarding his stupid codename, running over to help. "Damn it, damn it! Don't you die on me."

The gash was deep, and ran from clavicle to sternum, through his vest and armor, and blood was soaking its way down. She was going to have to work quick. "Get out of the way," she yelled at the sailors, kicking away the remaining tentacle around his sprawled legs.

Hands glowing green, she pushed her chakra into him.


	7. Out Go The Lights

As the other four members of his team crouched into a small cabin below deck, Kakashi wedged himself against the bench in the back wall, facing the door. He tried to relax and loosen his posture, slouching, holding his hands together over his stomach instead of having them crossed so hard that he looked like he was angry. He'd be trapped down here either way, it was raining outside, had been since about an hour into the voyage.

Diagonally from Kakashi, to his left and next to Sai (who was doodling), Darui sat down last, his face mirroring the cool that Kakashi was trying to project. Ai was to Kakashi's right, twisting a lock of her hair around one of her fingers, and next to her was Choujuro, who thankfully left his enormous sword in the cabin where they had their bunks. Kakashi's fingers twitched, impatient to pull out Icha Icha Paradise, but he resisted the urge.

"This is the real mission right here," Darui said, tugging out a small scroll from a pocket underneath his chest armor, and unrolling it with care.

"The real mission?" said Sai, looking up from his sketchbook, his dark eyes widening.

"What now?" Kakashi grumbled, disliking the surprise.

He was expecting a briefing on how they would approach the shore and from there track down their target. So if that first scroll had been a fake, it might mean that the Lightning Country was really going all out in obfuscating their intent. He wondered if the Raikage was suspicious of a high-level spy within Kumogakure itself, but had to shelve the thought, because Darui was grinning now, like he couldn't believe what he was going to have to ask of them.

"We're not going to be trying to track down the killer ourselves. Even if we did know who it was or where they were hiding, they have too many advantages in terms of simply hiding. No, instead we're going to do a little something to shake things up on the Fading Island, altogether." He turned the scroll around, holding it up for them to see its contents. "Not even Sakura-taicho knows about this. The only other people who do are the Hokage, the Mizukage and the Raikage and their assistants."

"Why the additional secrecy?" asked Kakashi. They were already on an S-class mission – Darui was saying it was beyond that, a suicide mission with a side of questionable ethics.

"Read it," Darui replied.

He'd thought the team divisions were a little odd at first, leaving them completely without a healer, but now it made sense. It was a task Tsunade thought that he and Sai were more suited to carrying out than Sakura and Yamato; this task would require stealth and speed and power and a cool head. He suspected that Tsunade thought that he and Sai were less likely to question these orders, as well. "This is crazy," he said.

Simply put, they were to sneak into a pair of temples, one called Kiriryuu and the other Tenryuu, which were on opposite sides of a valley from each other and steal the two huge chakra crystals that maintained the island's fog shroud.

Darui released the scroll to him, as he tugged it forward. Kakashi's eyes widened as he fully absorbed what looked like an exact recording of the Raikage's dictation. Ei's secretary seemed able to capture his loud, scowling tone perfectly with her nimble brushstrokes. "Obtain these items by any means necessary, using any ability at your command, regardless of any human interference," he read aloud. It was outright permission to carve a bloody path straight to their goal.

"Getting in will probably be the easiest part," Ai said, reading the scroll after Kakashi passed it on. "But even if we get that far and then have them in front of us, what do we do with them? There's no pictures of them, what if the things are as big as a house?"

Chakra crystals weren't necessarily something you could just carry around in your pocket, though Kakashi knew Tsunade had passed a small one on to Naruko once. The bigger they were, the more powerful they were – and if the legends were correct they sometimes acquired a will of their own. After all, they were just masses of pure, condensed chakra, which was very similar to what a tailed beast was.

"You'll be given a storage scroll to seal the crystal in, then whichever of us is still in good shape can hurry up and tell Sakura we have them. I'm expecting utter chaos to break out, so we will have to hit the ground running to reach her before they can move to obstruct us. Her orders are to stay in Noumugakure or wherever she and her escort are staying – or being detained - until we can meet up with her. If we are successful, we will then have something to bargain with to get both the Daimyo's killer and a treaty with the island's leadership," Darui said.

It sounded so tidy when he put it like that, not like they were disrupting the daily lives of a whole country of people. He didn't mention if they'd actually give both of the crystals back or what they'd do if they failed. Though complete failure meant they'd all be dead or as good as dead.

"Pass that over here, Ai-san," Choujuro said, and adjusted his glasses as he read down the length of rice paper. "This plan is insane. It's not like those things are vulnerable, or someone would have done this a long time ago. Not even the Seven Swordsmen have ever tried anything like this. I didn't even know that these temples existed."

"It is a closely guarded secret, and we did still have a treaty to keep it as such when we learned of them. Our only intelligence is from thirty years ago, but as you can see, the source was able to provide photos of the temples, a rough map and the movements of the people within," said Darui. "It's not certain if they know that we are aware of them."

Kakashi wondered if whoever procured the information, was from the island itself. Someone seeking asylum perhaps, or instigate change within their country, or even wanting to hurt their own people out of vindictiveness. He'd seen it before, with Orochimaru and certain members of the effectively dead Uchiha clan, so it was within the realm of possibility.

"So all the information is totally out of date," said Sai, his face holding a hint of an inappropriate smile.

Darui nodded, his own expression a bit more solemn. "It's the best we've got. We're counting on their overconfidence that their relics are safe from intruders, and maybe they haven't had a good fight in years and are out of practice. Our only other real advantage will be surprise, which means we have to arrive on the island undetected and then be in and out of the temples like lightning. Two teams of two to infiltrate the temples themselves and capture and one other to neutralize the garrison in the valley itself."

Ai shook her head. "That's basically suicide for the guy going for the garrison though. No one to cover your back, and if you get penned in from both sides in the valley -"

"I agree this will be the hardest role to fill, which is why I've already volunteered myself for it. I've got a couple of tricks left in me," Darui said with a cold-eyed, gallows grin. "Ai and Kakashi, you two will take the Kiriryuu temple, and Sai and Choujiro will take the Tenryuu temple. First though, we have to make land, and this ship is not taking us all of the way to shore. I hope all of you like to swim."

* * *

Muscles aching as he moved forward through water that was nowhere near body-temperature, Kakashi focused on keeping his chakra distributed evenly through his body, warming his limbs. He was keeping up with the other members of his team, who were fanned out to his right, well enough. Soon, he could see something in the water ahead, dark and solid like it could be the shoreline. The closer he got, the more it took on a rust-red tinge, blocky and looking man-made.

The length of the barrier was crusted with barnacles and long uneven spikes like a sea urchin, as it wound down the seafloor; he supposed this had to be the infamous and aptly named Wall of Iron Spikes. If he approached it at the wrong angle he'd be slammed into it by the surface current, impaled or cut to ribbons. He watched as two others ahead of him both swam higher in the water, surfacing to try to evaluate the width of the barrier. Kakashi knew it was futile though, since the fog was so thick above. At least the sun shone through enough to make seeing underwater unproblematic.

He swam at it faster instead of slowing down, picking his target, one spike that stuck out from the rest, grabbing it with firm hand and feeling the oxidized metal crumble a little under his taloned glove. Once he had his bearings, like an eel he slithered his way around the rest of the rusty projections, careful not to let his equipment or his suit snag. The shore couldn't be too much further ahead, and he pushed himself hard forward in the water so he wouldn't get swept back against the barrier.

There, not much further. He could sense the wide, solid expanse of land ahead, weighted with people and other living things. It was impossible to tell if anyone or anything would be waiting for them, however.

As the steady even waves helped propel him along with his companions up onto the vaguely-defined, rocky shore, Kakashi pulled the diving gear from his mouth and face and took in a gulp of fresh salt air. The fog was so thick that it had been easier to see underwater than it was here on land. He looked over and saw Sai, only a few lengths from him, already on his feet. He grinned at Kakashi just enough that only the corners of his mouth turned up, like he'd won some sort of contest only he knew about.

"This is going to be a challenge, isn't it? I can barely see you over there. We all are probably going to die if we can't get out of this fog." Sai said, his usual calm indifference gone, looking almost happy as he stripped off his pack so he could get out of the diving suit.

"Yeah," Kakashi nodded and did the same. Sai was an excellent shinobi, but sometimes Kakashi wanted to punch him. The man still didn't understand that there was a right time and a wrong time to say certain things.

His entire body ached from swimming the mile from ship to shore, and the others couldn't be in much better shape, even though they managed to pass the rusted-out barrier of spikes unscathed. If the water had been just a little bit rougher, he wasn't so sure that that would have been the case. There was still no sign of the guardian beast, which was a relief. Hopefully, it wouldn't come inland or have gone after Sakura's ship instead.

From what he could see, the shoreline was largely barren except for clumps of sea grass and lichens. Within the shroud of heavy fog he could smell evergreens in the distance, but couldn't get a sense of how thickly forested the area was ahead.

"According to reports, the fog should thin out about a quarter mile inland. We'll have to move with extreme caution until we reach that point." Darui said, as everyone piled their diving equipment neatly next to a scroll that would seal it all away until they needed it again.

"Also, try to limit using your chakra for anything more than enhancing your movements, until you have encountered a legitimate threat. We don't know how strong of sensors they have here. For all we know the fog might part of a sensor array."

Kakashi shook his head. If the fog shroud really was such a thing, they would stick out even from a distance to a decent sensor who knew what they were looking for. "Maybe I should summon a few of my dogs, taicho. They'll be able to guide us with their noses better than we'll be able to see with our eyes, and I can send a couple ahead to scout," he said.

"Good suggestion. We're going to need every advantage we have. Move single file, and don't let the person in front of you get out of sight. If you don't already have your compasses out, get them out. We'll, bear southwest until the fog breaks and from there we should be able to pick our route. Ai, you take point with one of Kakashi's dogs, I'll bring up the back. Any questions?" Darui said, looking around at each of them.

"No sir," Kakashi said, as he cut himself enough to bleed onto the rough stones of the beach, did the proper seals and slammed his hands onto the ground. In a puff of smoke, three blue-vested nin-dogs appeared, all members of the pack he'd befriended and taken into service. He was relieved to see Pakkun's wrinkled, world-weary pug face.

"Whatcha need, boss?" said Pakkun, sitting on his haunches between the two slightly larger dogs – Guruko, a golden mutt who had long, brown ears and long whiskers and Uhei, who was brown and slender like a greyhound, but had huge paws and wore bandages around his head.

"We've got to get past this fog, so I'll need your noses. I'll tell you the rest as we go." Kakashi said, and seeing no need for further hesitation, the group set out.

* * *

The nin-dogs turned out to be as invaluable as Kakashi thought they would be. Even after the fog largely dispersed, it still was a presence. Large swathes of the rocky terrain ahead often faded in and out of sight, as a cloudy wall would drift through and then away.

Guruko stayed in front with Ai, while Pakkun and Uhei took off in different directions, reporting back periodically. It would have been much harder to find the temples without them, hidden as they were upon the tops of two forested, cleverly fortified hills.

Around them were stands of tall, white pine and full-skirted spruce and cedar, smelling pleasant and making a spongy mat of needles underfoot. These were planted or cut back in a fashion that created what looked like natural paths and breaks, but designed to direct interlopers down the hill if they did not know the correct path. The dogs could tell with their noses instantly where humans had tread most often, and even in the fading light of the late afternoon picked out the proper trail with ease.

Thus far, they'd managed to avoid four pairs of white and green clad sentries and the almost invisible traps set up throughout the uneven ground. Kakashi had his sharingan uncovered, and was continuously scanning for human chakra. That they made it this far without having to kill anyone was fortunate, but he didn't know how much longer this would be the case. He wasn't quite as experienced as Sai was in that department, but he wouldn't hold back if he thought there was no other option.

Having Ai run point turned out to be a good decision. Halfway up the ridge, Kakashi swore he saw the pair of sentries before she did. By the time he had his katana out and was poised to attack, literally in the blink of an eye, the sentries had already been wrapped head to toe with her black ropes and pulled up high into a nearby tree. He heard scarcely a cry from their throats and not a single drop of blood was spilled.

"You're good," said Sai, while Kakashi and Choujuro just gaped.

"The ropes are infused with a contact poison that the people of my clan are immune to, but will knock most others out within moments. Don't get in my way," she said with a wink as they moved on, turning her wide, bright grin on Kakashi as he glanced up at her handiwork.

He was glad she was on his side – and that he was wearing gloves.

"I'll keep that in mind," Kakashi said. He was going to have to work with her, and it was boggling how little they actually knew about each other's skills. He supposed he picked the wrong person to spar with the other night.

As they crested the final ridge, the sun had set and the shadows were already deep and cold, the mist settling back in. Darui stopped and held up his hand. "Okay crew, this is where we split up. Circle around for final orders." In the twilight, the two stone temples on either side were almost invisible between the drifting fog and thick foliage that made them hard to pick out. Kakashi knew they were there, he'd seen the pictures of hunched gray-green structures and the tall fortifications around them.

"The rally point is here," Darui said, pointing to a spot on the map. Kakashi had the map memorized already and mentally he made a little red dot to the north of where a bridge was demarcated. "Each team has a half an hour to complete the objective and meet up with the rest of us. You know what to do if you don't think you're going to make it. After that we will make haste to rendezvous with Sakura's team."

"Shouldn't we destroy the bridge behind us to keep them from following?" asked Choujuro.

"If it's a viable option at that point, yes – though keep in mind that they might have the chance to destroy it ahead of us to slow us down, too. Concern yourself with getting there first," Darui replied, tucking the map away. He then distributed a pair of sealing scrolls, one to Kakashi and one to Choujuro, since they were the members of the two teams standing closest to him.

Kakashi gathered his dogs around him. "Uhei, you go with Sai and Choujuro, Gururo stick with Darui no matter what, and Pakkun you'll come with me, as usual."

"Right," the dogs said in unison, and the three groups shot away from each other, all moving fast in the direction of their targets.

As they ran up the dark, wooded hill, Ai kept pace with him, Pakkun trailing slightly behind. "How do you want to do this?" she asked. "According to the map the crystal should be ensconced on the top of a pillar in the middle of the temple."

"The write-up said that around the base is a wide pit which is lined with swords. We have to get over that somehow – and we don't even know if that's the only trap," he said. The challenge intrigued him, but there were so many unknowns it also made him uncomfortable.

"True. If I can get on top of one of the buildings I can lariat the pillar and swing over while you cover me," she said. "I'm a sensor, I should be able to pick out any traps, and that eye of yours is supposed to be proof against genjutsu."

"Yes, but what if roping the pillar pulls the whole thing down? We don't want to destroy the crystal. Besides, you'll be too easy of a target just hanging there," he pointed out.

Ai glanced over at him as they ran. "Don't worry about that. I won't just be hanging. I'm pretty sure I can do it without busting the pillar if I use two ropes – one on either side."

"Fine then, I can cover you while you do that, but what's our back up plan?" If she fell, or died, he'd still have to try and get the crystal.

"I'm thinking. Do you have any elemental jutsus? I've got lightning and wind," she said.

"Mostly lightning and water. I've been working on some earth jutsus but I'm not good at them yet," he admitted. He'd started working on the earth techniques well before the water ones, but he had more of a knack with water – though not as easy as with lightning.

Ai laughed. "Pretty young to already have mastered two elements. Ever done chain lightning with another person?"

He didn't think she seemed old enough to be calling him young, but he didn't complain. "I've seen it done and I catch on quick," he said. It was supposed to be tricky, but any pair of elite shinobi who could both use lighting should be able to pull it off. It would create a wide-ranging field that would stun or potentially kill a large number of assailants - or in this case, defenders.

"We can use that to knock out at least the first wave of response and then I'll set up my ropes. If I get hit you can still use the ropes, I won't use the poison ones, I'll use the steel threaded ones instead," she said.

"Sounds good. It'll be easier to catch them in the chain lightning if I put some water down first. Oh, and you should probably take this," he said. He pulled the sealing scroll from his pouch and held it out to her, since she was going to be the one going after the crystal. As they ran, she took it from his outstretched hand, like a baton from a relay race.

"Got it. It's going to expend a lot of chakra to fill that much space with water," she said.

"Well you're sticking your neck out pretty far. I think I can afford it. So I'll cover you then, and you get in and out," he said. He was imagining Sai painting himself and Choujuro each a bird and them swooping down to grab their crystal with ease. "I wonder if the opposition will have air support, too" he pondered.

"I don't know, I guess there's only one way to find out," she said smiling over to him. She seemed so eager, he was catching some of her enthusiasm.

It faded quickly, and Kakashi cursed, as he sighted a group of armored men standing waiting, weapons out. A moment later the soldiers were running at them like a wall spears.

So they knew they were coming. It didn't matter though, they had their orders. If he had to cut a path through them to the objective, he would. The only way they were going to succeed, was if they could get in and out before any of the defending shinobi could get off any big techniques.

"Let's do it," he said, grinning at Ai from behind his mask, and she smirked back. This wasn't anything personal to him, but Ai might feel differently, since it was her daimyo that was murdered. The Leaf was merely assisting a valued ally, but he would do his best.

Kakashi focused the sharingan on a group of his targets and filled his outstretched hand with lightning, until he could hear it screeching in his ears. He ran at them like the wind, dodging arrows, torches, knives, swords, shining spears, cut through the line of helmeted soldiers with a razor of light, disabling as many as he could, and didn't slow down until he reached the temple wall.

Once there, Ai, with blood streaking her dark face and abundant curls, followed in his wake, scrambling up the smooth, stone edifice with him. They scurried like spiders running into the shadows, with chakra in their hands and feet, neither of them stopping to look back. Many more opponents were probably inside, guarding the stone. They had to keep moving, projectiles coming at them from the guards above and below.

Kakashi threw a kunai with an explosive tag ahead of him onto the top of the parapet, the resulting blast of which rained dust down upon them. He threw two behind him for good measure, light and heat from the explosions washing up over them. They reached the top to the sight of the bodies of three archers splayed out, either dead or unconscious. Once Kakashi could see the sheer number of people amassed against them below, he almost laughed.

The intelligence hadn't lied, but there were definitely more than two hundred. He hoped there was still someone in the valley below for Darui to fight, because he was fairly certain at least half of the soldiers who were supposed to be stationed there, were already here. The cover available on the wall was insignificant, so Kakashi grabbed Pakkun, and the three of them jumped to the top of a narrow, upcurving roof across from them.

Not bothering to call his attack as he landed, Kakashi did the seals for the Great Waterfall technique. He dumped enough chakra into it that a huge flood of water raged down into the wide stone courtyard from beneath his hands. Tens of the flailing soldiers that had surged in their direction, were pressed back by the current until they hit up against a white-washed building or the wall, or each other.

Ai was using her lightning chakra with her special ropes behind him, the wired ropes shooting sparks at the men who continued to try to get at them from below. He felt a fire technique flicker past, and someone down there was deft with the water bullet jutsu, but his armor held. Fog was billowing up from the left hand side of the temple, and soon the darkness wasn't going to be their only handicap.

"I see the pillar," Ai said, when he was done with his deluge. "Give me your hands and merge your chakra with mine, quickly."

He did as she asked, overcoming the small wave of anxiety that was generated by doing such an intimate thing, by not looking at her. Ai's chakra had a warmth and mellowness to it that gave him flashes of early autumn in Konoha; he could only wonder what she felt from his own.

"Now together we do the seals, mold the chakra in your hands to lightning and pull back, feed in as much as you want," she said.

It was strange mirroring the three seals with another pair of hands, but it happened fast enough that he couldn't think about it much other than to concentrate on the correct movements. From small sparks, a steady stream of electricity rose from their hands and they swiftly moved away from each other, keeping the stream going.

"Raiton – Double Chain technique," Ai called.

Together they jumped down into the pooling water in the courtyard and standing back-to-back, simultaneously slammed their hands down onto the just-submerged flagstones. This sent what looked like a jagged white net jumping and sparking through Kakashi's previous water technique.

Those soldiers and monks who were closest and standing in the water didn't have a chance, though some started to run once they saw it coming. It was too late though, the shining field of chain lightning was constant and strong and reached as far as his deluge did, throwing up radiant streams and knocking down everyone in its path.

Screams echoed in his ears, and he knew he was going to be hearing them for a lot longer than the technique lasted. Kakashi could already smell burned flesh and scorched hair and clothing, but the lightning continued screeching out, rushing from their hands.

"I'm letting it go," Ai yelled, warning him so that he didn't get backlash and get burned.

"Do it!" and Kakashi cut off the steady release of his chakra. While their power dissipated, together they leaped back to the rooftops. This time the taller building that was adjacent to the one they'd just left. There were five buildings in totaly all just close enough to the walls and each other that a skilled ninja could zig-zag across one to the next, as they intended to do.

"Cover me," Ai said, as she flung out a rope and jumped to another roof and then another.

Kakashi rained hell down on her pursuers, throwing explosive tags, shuriken, and here and there a roof tile. He finally had a chance to look at their goal – a long, fluted pillar of the local stone, with a large mass of hexagonal crystals at the top. The mass of crystals was about the size of a man's head, he thought. They seemed like they were clear but picked up the yellow-orange glow of the lanterns and torches below, giving them their own innate lambency.

He had the strangest sense that the shining stone was watching them and smirking.

Ai threw out her first rope and it looped over the crystal and went taut.

Kakashi lost sight of her then, between the darkness and the billows of fog, and he ran to another rooftop, avoiding a new round of attacks. The defenders were so riled up now, he was going to have to keep moving.

"Pakkun, can you see her?"

"Over there!" Pakkun barked.

"Shit."

He saw the second rope go over the pillar – and he could see men swarming up the building, trying to cut the first rope. Kakashi ran back the way he'd come, the yelling and angry cries intensifying as he closed, and threw down a smoke bomb on either side of the roof he stood on. This didn't stop the arrows coming from the wall behind him, however, and he had been grazed already more times than he wanted to consider.

When he looked up again, Ai was running across the tightrope she'd created. He watched as she was struck by an arrow, once then twice, but didn't falter. Soon, she was on the pillar, balancing with her feet on either side of the crystal, with the scroll out and was hit again. This time he knew she felt it. She held steady though, with the scroll open. As the seal activated the crystal started to incandesce throwing out tendrils of light, almost like it was resisting.

"Ai!" Kakashi cried out. He got as close as he could to her from the rooftop without stepping on the rope she'd anchored there.

She seemed to struggle for a moment, and then the crystal was sealed. Still, Ai was faltering, and Kakashi could do nothing as she was struck again with multiple arrows. He watched as she knelt down, balanced on the empty pillar top and she wound her arm back and threw the scroll in his direction.

"Run for it, kid!" she yelled, her voice hoarse and pained.

Tracking it's path through the air, Kakashi jumped to reach the flying scroll, but it over arched his grasp. As Kakashi fell, Pakkun used his back as a springboard, and jumped; so high that Kakashi thought that Pakkun was going to miss the edge of the roof and break his neck. It didn't help that explosions were rocking the entire temple. Ai must have set something off while Kakashi wasn't looking.

But Pakkun caught the scroll in his teeth, and made a solid landing. He scrabbled over next to Kakashi, who was sprawled back on the gray tiles, staring at Ai kneeling on the pillar. The kunoichi was starting to glow intensely, and Kakashi was hit full force with the fact that he couldn't do a damn thing to help her.

"Snap out of it! She knew the risks, now come on," Pakkun said, holding the scroll under one of his paws.

"I-"

He'd known and mourned members of ANBU who were forced to use the suicide technique that made their bodies disintegrate so no information could be obtained from their corpses. However, he'd never seen anyone carry it out on a mission. She wasn't using the standard jutsu either, and looking at the patterns from the chakra her body was expelling, she was planning on taking out as many of the defenders as she could with her death.

"Move it, Kakashi, there's no time. We've got to get out!" Pakkun nipped his arm, and Kakashi scrambled up, fixing his eyes on the wall he was going to have to jump onto to leave. There were obstacles with scorched hands and raging faces and sharp shining implements pointed at him. Ai had known she was probably going to die, and she trusted that he'd follow through; Tsunade trusted that he'd follow through; Sakura trusted that he'd follow through He drew a single kunai and jumped, caught in the light and the shockwave of Ai's final attack.

Carried over the wall with the blast, he and Pakkun fell. Kakashi had just enough time to tuck his head in and hit the ground at a roll. This was also the moment that he realized he had an arrow sticking out of his back, pushed deeper with the fall.

The pain immobilized him, and for a moment all he could see were iridescent stars. Pakkun had his jaws around his shoulder tugging him up, but he was a nerveless heap.

"Get up, Kakashi, don't quit now!"

Vaguely, he could hear the clunking rhythm of a hundred hard soles on stone, and he tried to move. This was not where it was going to end; his body wasn't listening though.

At his head, Pakkun was growling and barking at something, probably one of the guards coming down at him – though it was hard to focus, hard to breathe. _Get up! Get up! Get up! _He could hear another dog barking frantically, coming closer.

"Gu-Gururo?" he groaned. Lightning cracked overhead, and he was blinded, the smell of earth and ozone wafting around him.

One blurry, excruciating moment later, he was dragged to his feet by a strong hand under his arm. He could hear screams as his dogs tore into another soldier. Darui looped Kakashi's arm around his shoulder and supported him just under his injury. It took all of Kakashi's will to not pass out from the pain.

"No one was in the valley, except the garrison staff," Darui said, as he took off running faster, starting to leap, Kakashi keeping his feet, ordering his body to obey. "I came up your way since you two seemed to be making the most noise."

"Ai's dead," Kakashi mumbled.

"Yeah. You got the crystal though." Darui's voice didn't waver or hold any discernible emotion regarding Ai, and Kakashi didn't expect it to. She had been a comrade, but was dead and thus indifferent to being mourned. It could be done later when the living members of their squad weren't still in danger. The important thing now was to meet up with Sai and Choujuro and hurry to where Sakura was headed.

"Pakkun has it, don't worry," he affirmed, hearing the dogs following behind them through the thick evergreens that Darui was navigating by starlight alone.

"Where are you injured?"

"Busted off an arrow in the right side of my back," Kakashi said. There were plenty of worse places to be struck, and it didn't seem to be poisoned. If it shredded any of his major organs, he'd be dead in a few hours; if not, he'd still be in a world of pain until he could get even the most basic field dressing and take a soldier pill.

"You're breathing pretty normal, so it didn't go through your lung. Probably cracked your rib real good though," he assessed as they ran. "We'll have to wait until we've got some light to try and get it out."

That sounded about right, but he might still bleeding internally which at the moment they could also do nothing about and could kill him anytime really. "You should leave me behind," he said, though he wanted to push on.

"Sorry, but no can do. We need your dogs, and I'm not convinced you're done. Maybe if you got your leg shot out I would," he said, and Kakashi had little doubt he was serious. He could send the pack on without him, but once Kakashi was dead the dogs' contract would be up and it would be up to them whether or not to fulfill the mission. They probably would, but he hated the thought of them going on without him. It was selfish, just like his desire to not be abandoned.

"Heh, you just don't want Sakura pissed at you." Kakashi said, through gritted teeth as Darui leaped again, which jostled his injury enough to make his vision dance.

"If you can joke you're in better shape than I thought. Hang in there, kid. We've still got a long way to go."


End file.
